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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 




Anna Coope and her pupil, Lonnie Powers. 



ANNA COOPE 

SKY PILOT OF THE 
SAN BLAS INDIANS 



Hn Hutobiograpb? 




AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

PARK AVENUE AND 40TH STREET 

NEW YORK 






Copyright, 1917, by 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 



^'^-^^^os^ 






OCT 22 1917 






♦ 

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FOREWORD 

This is a remarkable book, and for the rea- 
son that it is born out of a remarkable, and, in- 
deed, an almost unprecedented experience. 
The author's life is spent daily and hourly in 
communion with the Creator and Heavenly 
Father. God is always near, always reveal- 
ing His love, and manifesting His protection 
and deliverance. The book is especially 
timely in these days when God is held by so 
many to act only through the established laws 
that control the physical universe. It is in- 
spiring and uplifting to be in the atmosphere 
even for a short time of a faith that believes 
in God every moment, and trusts Him for all 
things, realizing that He is present in the 
smallest details of our daily life. The book 
is published under the strong conviction that 
it will strengthen the faith of all who read it, 
and bring the believer into closer touch with 
the Eternal Father and Omnipotent Saviour. 

JuDSON Swift. 

iii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I GiRLHcx>D Days in England . • . . i 

II New Life in a New Land . . , ^ . 20 

III To THE West Indies and Home Again . 30 

IV Up the Orinoco to San Isidro ... 43 
V Work Ended in Venezuela .... 67 

VI My Adventures in a Launch . * • 79 

VII Back to Colon . , . . , . • * 89 

VIII At Rio Diablo , . ^ 104 

IX Hindrances and Progress 120 

X Some of My Boys . 132 

XI " The Chief Man of the Island " . .149 

XII Some Customs of the San Blas Indians 165 

XIII God's Leadings 176 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Anna Coope and her pupil, Lonnie Powers . Frontispiece ^ 



FACING 
PAGE 



The first school was a native house with palm-leaf 

roof and bamboo walls . . . . . . . 22 ^ 

"I feel very big towering over some of the women, 

who stand under my arm" 22 /^ 

San Bias women in native dress. The crowning 
feature of the costumes are the heavy strings 
of beads of all colors on the neck, arms and 
legs, and nose rings 44 ^' 

Miss Coope's "up-stairs tenement" at Rio Diablo. 

Native grass houses on the left . . . . , 60 ^ 

A nearer view of the author's home. The first floor 
is the schoolhouse and mission.^ Chief Robin- 
son has on a black derby hat 60 ^ 



v' 



Map showing location of San Bias Islands and coun- 
try round about 80 

Chief Robinson's House. Open door leads to store. 
The American as well as the Panama flag forms 
part of the decorations 100 

The **San Bias" — the Panama government steamer / 

which plys up and down the north coast . .100 

Boys from the school. Andrew Ferguson is third 

from the left 134 tX 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Beads for the legs. Dame Fashion is as tyrannical in 

San Bias as in other parts of the world . . . 134 ^ 

The main street on the island of Rio Diablo. Na- 
tive woman carrying her husband's canoe. 



Cross indicates the last rum shop, now closed . 154 * 

A Panamanian policeman with some native boys and 
girls. The steps to the new government public 
school are in the background 154''^ 



ANNA COOPE 



ANNA COOPE, 

SKY PILOT OF THE SAN BLAS 
INDIANS 

CHAPTER I 

GIRLHOOD DAYS IN ENGLAND 

I HAVE often been asked to write the story 
of my life, showing how God has led me 
and provided for every need as I walked by 
faith in his promises. What God has done 
for me He can do for others, and if the read- 
ing of these chapters will help some one to 
step out by simple faith on His promises, every 
one of which is Yea and Amen in Christ Je- 
sus, I shall be glad that I have tried to tell 
the story in my simple way. 

In Bolton, Lancashire, England, a large 
manufacturing town of about two hundred 
thousand inhabitants, on Tuesday, May 31st, 
1864, I first saw the light of day. I was not 



2 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

very warmly welcomed because I was a girl, 
poor me! Although I was the express image 
of my father, he was not particularly fond of 
me, so I became mother's girl. For some time 
she cherished a grudge against me because I 
had blue eyes and flaxen hair like my father, 
but after a while, mother-like, she became 
reconciled to my defects and loved me in spite 
of them. 

I was the first-born, which has been a com- 
fort to me, for God has said : "The first-born 
are mine." The second child came two years 
later and was a boy. Mother and father were 
very happy, but the baby did not stay long, 
only three months, and from that time I was 
the only child. 

When I was vaccinated I became a great 
deal of trouble, for something was wrong 
with the vaccine and my arm became so bad 
that the doctor said it would have to be ampu- 
tated; but mother said she would not bring 
up a one-armed child, and he must either 
kill me or cure me with two arms. To be 
a girl was bad enough, but to be a one-armed 
girl was unendurable! 

Finally the arm healed, and then there 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 3 

came a growth in my nose which no one 
seemed to be able to name. One doctor said 
it was a polypus, another contradicted this; 
but whatever it was it gave me pain. My 
mother went to one doctor after another, some 
saying that I was too young to be operated 
on. At last she became desperate and said, 
"Operate at once, whatever the result, and let 
us know the worst; she cannot go on suffer- 
ing in this way." The operation was per- 
formed and I lived, but with a pug nose that 
was to be all my life my thorn in the flesh. 
I did not mind being a girl, but to be called 
"Pug-nose" by thoughtless children in school, 
was hard to bear. 

I can see that God allowed this trouble for 
a purpose. Because of it I kept aloof from 
other children, and as I was an only child I 
stayed much in the house and learned all that a 
girl ought to about housekeeping, was the com- 
panion of my mother and grandmother, and 
began to read at an early age. I was very 
fond of reading out loud and my parents en- 
couraged it, so I was getting my first lessons in 
a life of service for others. 

I mention my "thorn in the flesh" because 



4 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

I know that many are unhappy because they 
are not beautiful in face. But God has said 
in Isaiah: "How beautiful are the feet of him 
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth 
peace." So I am glad that I have "beautiful 
feet," and that Go's chose me to carry the mes- 
sage of salvation to many of His neglected 
ones. "Man looketh upon the outward ap- 
pearance, but God looketh on the heart." If 
I had not had the "thorn" given me, I would 
have looked like other girls and quite prob- 
ably would have married, so my whole life 
would have been different. I believe God 
allowed that disfigurement to come into my 
life to keep me for a particular work, there- 
fore that operation was the first lesson in my 
missionary training. 

My parents were hard-working people; 
neither one had had much schooling. My 
father went to work when he was seven years 
old and was apprenticed to learn the mule- 
spinning trade. My mother also began work- 
ing at an early age. Both of them were 
members of large 'families, and they had to 
assist in filling the family purse. My father 
was very fond of reading and was ambitious 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 5 

to have me learn, so he put me in a girls' pri- 
vate school when I was five years old and I 
stayed there until I was nine. I was always 
very fond of telling others what I had learned 
myself, so I began in those early days to teach 
my mother when I came from school, and I 
was sure that she and my grandmother were 
wonderfully edified! My father encouraged 
me to read and bought me books as rewards 
for good reading. He guarded me against 
what he termed ^'boshy fairy tales," and later 
on against novels, examining every book that 
I brought into the house, even from the Sun- 
day-school library. He threatened what he 
would do if he ever found me reading love 
stories. 

When I was nine my father took me from 
the private school, saying that I knew more 
than he did at my age and that I must now 
go to work. The law then would not allow 
a child to work all day long in any factory 
until it had passed the fourth standard, so I 
was put in school for half a day and the other 
half I had to work in a hot cotton factory. 
Here was another preparatory lesson in the 
school for missionary training; I was learn- 



6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

ing how to live in a tropical climate. I was 
not allowed to speak to the boys or men who 
worked for my father or near him. When 
passing them and wanting to speak, I seemed 
to feel the keen blue eyes of my father pierc- 
ing even my back. He punished me once 
when he thought I had talked with a boy who 
worked near by, and the only sympathy that 
I got from mother was, "You must obey your 
father." I did after that, you may be sure; 
for years I would not look at or talk to a boy. 
Although my father was not a professing 
Christian, and never took me to the house of 
God nor read the Bible in his home, and was 
bitter against me when at the age of seventeen 
I accepted Jesus as my Saviour, he had had 
the training of a godly mother who had 
prayed much for her nine children. She was 
what they called a Strict Baptist, and my fa- 
ther had been a good Sunday-school boy, so 
my aunt told me, but like many boys had 
stopped attending when he thought he was 
getting to be a man. My mother was partly 
brought up a Roman Catholic. Her mother 
was of French descent, but marrying an Epis- 
copalian, their house was divided and only 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 7 

one of their eight children clung to the Cath- 
olic Church, the others going to the Church 
of England. So my mother never taught me 
the religion of her childhood, but her oldest 
sister, the one Catholic in the family, tried her 
best to make me a convert of Rome, and 
would have succeeded if my father had not 
kept such a strict watch over me. He finally 
forbade her coming to the house. Here again 
is an evidence of God's overruling hand, for I 
was very receptive to religious influences and 
was just at the age to be easily moulded. 

When I left the private school my first 
Bible was given to me, and I well remember 
my cousin saying to me that I must put it 
away and keep it clean, as he did. He was 
ten years older than I and his Bible was as 
clean as when he received it. He never read 
it; oh, no, the Bible was to have and to hold 
occasionally, and to keep nice. I don't re- 
member reading it in the private school, but 
in the new Episcopal parochial school to 
which r went, we often read the Bible ; and one 
of the teachers asked me to come to the Sun- 
day-school and be in her class. My father 
reluctantly consented, saying that he didn't be- 



8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

lieve much in religion; it made folks crazy. 
I was allowed to go occasionally and was very 
glad indeed, but not until I was eleven years 
old did I go regularly. I remember going 
with a neighbor's child, a girl of my own age, 
when about seven or eight years old ; and there 
I heard a lady tell of the children in India 
who had no Sunday-school, who did not know 
how to sing these beautiful hymns and who 
knew nothing about Jesus who loved little 
children. I said, "Why doesn't somebody go 
and tell them? I would go if I were big, and 
when I get big I will go!" That settled it! 
I was marked for a missionary to Indians 
somewhere from that day; that was my star, 
my goal, henceforth. 

But now a new experience came into my 
life. One day while playing on the outer cir- 
cle of an open-air Methodist meeting, I heard 
a boy of about fourteen say that he knew his 
sins were forgiven and he was very happy. I 
had never heard any one talk like that before. 
My mother's mother had told of Jesus dying 
on the cross for sinners, but sinners were old 
folks, not a boy like that or a girl like me! 
Yes, grandmother did tell me that I "had a 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 9 

temper," but she never said that I was a sin- 
ner. This boy said that he was '^a sinner," 
but that Jesus had forgiven all his sins and 
that he was happy because he knew it. 

Now if I had dared to speak to that boy I 
Would have questioned him pretty closely, but 
I did not dare, so I had to puzzle over the 
matter without getting much satisfaction. 
God had used that boy to fix my attention on 
spiritual things. I wanted to know how he 
knew that he was forgiven. I had been go- 
ing to the Sunday-school and the church and 
was learning new things both from the Bible 
and the Catechism, but this was the newest. 
The Catechism said that I was "a member of 
Christ, a child of God," but I knew that in my 
heart I did not feel this to be true, and there 
came over me a great longing to be saved and 
to know It. 

I tried to get to a cottage prayer-meeting 
held not far from my home, but it was held 
at night and I was not allowed to go out after 
dark, so there was no help in that direction. 
I made up my mind that I would read my 
Bible more than ever and pray, and that was 
really the beginning of my searching to find 



10 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

out God. How I groped in the dark! I felt 
better when I prayed much, but I was not sat- 
isfied. I asked God to tell me that my sins 
were forgiven and I would tell it to every- 
body. I thought I must be confirmed, but my 
father vetoed that. Then I planned to go to 
a Methodist Sunday-school, and my mother 
forbade that; she didn't like "too much reli- 
gion" any more than my father. 

I grew desperate. Here I was seeking to 
get what I was sure was the best thing in the 
world, and those who ought to be helping me 
were keeping me back for fear I'd go crazy. 
Crazy? I felt as though I really should go 
crazy if I didn't get religion, and the kind 
that boy talked about, that made him glad. I 
knew that I was not glad, and I knew that 
my parents were not either; so I went on 
struggling, endeavoring to be a Christian. It 
was all endeavor; there was no Christian in 
it. 

So I went on struggling. But the Lord 
has wonderful ways of helping those who are 
seeking him, and he opened a way for me in 
the dark. Just at this time my father sub- 



GIRLHOOD DAYS ii 

scribed for a monthly paper, The Life and 
Explorations of David Livingstone, He 
read it because he was interested in the ex- 
ploration scheme, but I read it because David 
Livingstone preached Jesus to the poor Afri- 
cans. What did I care where the source of 
the Nile was? I wanted to find the source 
of salvation! Livingstone became my hero, 
and I looked forward eagerly to the coming 
of those papers. I determined that I would 
be a missionary after I had found out how 
I myself could be saved. The source of life 
eternal was my quest and as a guide-book I 
read my Bible constantly. 

In talking to one of my friends who had 
been confirmed I asked her if she knew she 
was a Christian. She said, *'I think so." I 
was dreadfully disappointed, because she did 
look so sweet in her white dress and confirma- 
tion cap that I thought somehow she must 
have been changed, but when she said, "I 
think so," I exclaimed, "Oh, dear me, I want 
to know! That boy said he knew; why don't 
you?" She said that was not to be known. 
"The minister didn't teach us that in the con- 



12 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

firmation class. He said to be good and to 
try every day to do right, and that Jesus would 
help us." 

I resolved then and there that I v^ould never 
be confirmed until I had a different feeling 
than this, until I knew surely that I was saved. 

I was about sixteen now, and a new battle 
was being fought out in my heart. At times 
I wanted to go to dances; my feet fairly 
tingled to dance music. I grew desperate 
and said that I wouldn't try any longer to be 
a Christian; I would be like my father, who 
made no profession and who never went to 
church. I knew professing Christians who 
danced, but I felt in my own heart that if I 
ever became a Christian I would not want to 
dance, and the reason why I wanted to now 
was because I was a sinner, "a miserable sin- 
ner," as the Prayer Book said; we chanted it 
every Sunday in the Litany, and I knew that 
it was true of myself. I made up my mind 
that I'd not struggle much longer. If I 
didn't come to know soon that I was saved it 
was no use pretending; I'd give up trying and 
go to the dance and the theater and have a 
grand good time! Why not? If it had not 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 13 

been for fear of my father I would have done 
these things ; and I resolved that when I was 
of age I would do them, if I was not a Chris- 
tian before that time. So I went on strug- 
gling and trying and finding no real peace. 

In the Lenten season of 1882 a minister of 
the Church of England came to our town to 
hold what is called a Mission for forty days. 
He spoke in the Sunday-school, and his 
words, his manner, his spirit were so differ- 
ent from anything that I had come in contact 
with before that I made up my mind that he 
was a Christian, and I wanted to hear him 
preach. I could get hold of what he said, or 
something got hold of me, and I trembled. 
The Sunday night that I heard him first he 
preached about the second coming of Christ, 
and it was so vivid that I expected Jesus to 
come before he got through preaching; and 
to cap it all he asked this pointed question: 
^'Is every one in this church ready to meet 
Jesus and go with him if he comes now?" 
Oh, it was like a thunderbolt in my soul! I 
trembled, and it seemed to me that I could 
hear my soul cry out in agony: "No, I am not 
ready 1" 



14 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

At the close of his sermon the preacher 
asked all who wanted to talk with him to go 
into the vestry, and the choir sang, "Yet There 
Is Room." I sat fixed in my seat. I wanted 
to go and yet I could not seem to take the first 
step. Alternate waves of chill and of fever 
swept over me, and I cried and trembled. 
One of my friends said, "Annie, what are you 
crying for? You are a good girl. If I were 
like you I'd not cry." 

"Oh, Emma," I cried, "don't talk like that! 
I'm not good; I'm a miserable sinner, and I 
know it!" 

She said, "I will go with you into the ves- 
try," but I preferred to go alone; I did not 
want such a poor helper. 

I did manage somehow to get into that ves- 
try and the room was full. I took a seat at 
the door, and my agony was so great that I 
sobbed aloud. The preacher's wife came to 
me and wanted to know why I cried. I said, 
"I'm not ready if Jesus comes to-night!" 
She talked to me kindly about being good and 
believing on Jesus. "Oh," I exclaimed, "I 
have tried to be good, but trying does not 
make me a Christian. I want to know that 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 15 

I am one." The good woman could not en- 
lighten me much, and I said to myself, "I see 
that it is only God who can help me; I shall 
have to talk to him." I got up from my knees 
with the grim determination that I would be 
a Christian and the "know so" kind; there is 
no other kind but the "know-so's." 

I went home and to my room and shut the 
door and cried and prayed, and became so ex- 
hausted that I fell asleep only to wake up the 
next morning in agony. But I prayed again 
and cried, and my grandmother asked me if I 
were sick. Yes, I was, but a dose of her 
wormwood did not cure that sickness. 

Finally on Wednesday, March 29, 1882, at 
three o'clock in the afternoon, I was really 
saved. It was while on my knees praying in 
the kitchen before a low rocking-chair — ^^down 
low in every sense of the word — that the light 
broke on my soul and I felt my burden of sin 
roll off. I had never read Bunyan's "Pil- 
grim's Progress," but I had the same experi- 
ence that Pilgrim had of the burden rolling 
away. I rose to my feet like one on air, with 
these words ringing like bells in my soul: 
"Certainly I will be with thee," and oh, I 



i6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

was happy! I danced for joy, and in a few 
minutes was on my way down the street to the 
home of my Sunday-school teacher to tell her 
the good news. She said she was glad; that 
she had prayed for me, because she wanted 
all her girls to be confirmed! Confirmed? 
That might be another step, but it was enough 
for me now that I knew that I was Christ's 
and he was mine. I replied, "Oh, I don't 
think my father will let me be confirmed, but 
I know that I am a Christian now, and I am 
happy." 

I almost walked on air after that testimony; 
and I was eager to have an opportunity of tell- 
ing my friend who sat beside me Sunday 
night. I met her on the street, and grasping 
her arm cried: "Oh, Emma, I know I am a 
Christian now!" 

"How do you know?" she asked; "I do 
not, and I have been confirmed and you have 
not" 

True, I had not been confirmed ; but I had 
been so convicted of sin that, like David, my 
bones waxed old through my groaning. Now 
God had spoken — "Certainly I will be with 
thee" — and I knew the voice ; it was not that 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 17 

of a human being; and my whole soul was 
flooded with light; I had the joy of assurance. 
Blessed assurance! My mouth was opened 
that I might tell it out to others. It was no 
more "hope so," "think so," but "I know"! 

My friend said : "Don't go crazy telling that 
story!" 

"Oh, no, I won't be crazy," I replied; "but 
I'll tell it to everybody!" 

That afternoon I told my grandmother, 
who had been visiting a friend. She said: 
"Well, I'm very glad to hear it. Now if you 
are a Christian, when I ask you to leave your 
books and wash dishes you'll do it without 
stamping your feet and banging the doors." 

You see grandmother had not much confi- 
dence in my "Christian endeavor" life and 
wanted to see the real thing. But her remarks 
did not cool me off ; I was a Christian and I 
knew it. 

When my father came home — ah, here was 
the test of my courage! But I had something 
to tell and I went at it straight as a die. He. 
growled, than said in an indirect way, not 
speaking to any one in particular: "H'm, it's a 
whim she has ; it will soon pass off." Well, 



i8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

thirty-four years have gone by and the "whim" 
is still on. He did not understand, neither 
did mother, who simply said: "I hope so," 
when I told her. 

But none of these things moved me. I was 
living in a new world ; I was born again. I 
was "a new creature in Christ Jesus," a child 
of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
heaven. I never again repeated that part of 
the Litany which says that we are "miserable 
sinners," for I did not feel that I was. I knew 
that I was a forgiven sinner, and it made me 
very happy. My girl friends called me 
"saint" and "too religious," because I refused 
to go with them on their Sunday afternoon 
strolls but would go with my Sunday-school 
teacher to visit the sick. I gave as my reason 
that I wanted to be a missionary, so I must be- 
gin to take my training. 

A candidates' class for confirmation had 
been formed during Lent, and I had twice 
asked my father to let me join it, only to be 
refused. But about two weeks before its close 
I asked once more, to receive the answer: 
"Well, your grandmother says that you are 



GIRLHOOD DAYS 19 

better. If you keep on like that you may do 
as you please." So I joyfully made prepara- 
tion to be confirmed on May 1 8th, just thirteen 
days before my eighteenth birthday. 



CHAPTER II 

NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 

TWO years after my conversion we left 
England for the United States, landing 
in New York, then going on to Providence, 
Rhode Island. My rector had given me a let- 
ter to present to any Episcopal clergyman 
where I might settle. 

We lived only two months in Providence; 
then father and I got work in the Turkey Red 
Dye Works at Bellefont, near Auburn, Rhode 
Island. In this establishment I learned to 
weave damask tablecloths ; and at every oppor- 
tunity I bore testimony to Jesus who had 
saved me and day by day kept me. We lived 
in old Elmville until the Roger Williams 
Park Association took the land, the Wextend 
Park grounds, etc., when we purchased a lot 
and built a cottage in Edgewood and made 
that our permanent home. 

I found that there were two churches in 

20 



NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 21 

Auburn, which was very thinly populated at 
that time — one Baptist and the other Adven- 
tist of the American Pre-millennial Associa- 
tion. A young woman who worked near rne 
in the factory offered to take me to Sunday- 
school, which she said she attended when she 
had something new to wear. So I went to the 
Baptist church in the morning and the Sun- 
day-school in the afternoon, but was so dis- 
appointed that I cried when I went home. I 
told my mother that the preacher was uninter- 
esting and nothing that he said touched the 
heart. I had expected something different 
from the church to which my grandmother 
belonged, but this church was probably an ex- 
ception. The Sunday-school was no better; 
the girls seemed giddy, and the teacher was not 
able to hold their attention. There was more 
display of jewelry than I had seen among the 
wealthiest ladies of the church at home in 
England, and I was actually homesick for my 
old church. 

This went on for several Sundays when a 
neighbor, talking with my mother at the well, 
invited mother to go with her to her church 
the following Sunday evening. She thanked 



22 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

the one who invited her, but said that she did 
not care to go to church; that her daughter 
might, however. I had heard this other one 
called "the little church," and I looked for- 
ward with hope that it might be simple and 
quiet and rtleet my need. It did. As I en- 
tered the door I felt at home. The bell- 
ringer was also deacon, janitor, Sunday-school 
superintendent and Bible class teacher. He 
shook my hand so that I remembered it ; there 
was no doubt of my welcome. The one-room 
building was so simple in its arrangement and 
color-tone that I was rested at once. When 
the other members of the congregation came 
in, my escort and I were introduced and made 
to feel welcome. I felt that I had found my 
church home, and it proved to be that for thir- 
teen years. 

The preacher, the Rev. F. O. Cunningham, 
who is still alive and preaching in the New 
England States, was a fine singer and the 
whole assembly sang heartily. The hymns 
were new to me, so I listened. I remember 
one in particular: "IVe reached the land of 
corn and wine." Ah, yes, that was just what 
I had reached, and I was going to stay if 




'i'he l.rst school was a native house with palm- leaf root 
and bamboo walls. 




■a 



-■ ,". 



I feel very big towering over some of the women, who 
stand under my arm." 



NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 23 

they would let me, but I wondered how I was 
to join such a church, which in England 
would be called a Dissenting church. 

The singing and the prayer uplifted me; 
but the sermon was wonderful. It was on the 
second coming of Christ, which was presented 
in such a way that I sat spellbound. I had 
never heard a sermon like that in all my 
twenty years. The preacher who spoke the 
night that I was converted had talked of the 
Lord's coming in judgment, and I was terri- 
fied because I was not ready to meet Him. 
But this was a different phase of His coming. 
I did not lose a word, and I turned to the ref- 
erences in my Bible so that I could read them 
again. Tears rolled down my face. I was 
fed; I was happy; my hungry heart was satis- 
fied. 

When the service was over the preacher 
came to me and said: "A stranger, but you 
are welcome." I said: *^Oh, can I come here 
always?" Of course I could! That night I 
literally skipped down that lane, and my 
friend laughed to see me so happy. I kept 
saying: ^'Jesus is coming back, and I must be 
ready for Him. But do you have such Bible 



24 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

readings as that always? It was almost all 
Bible 1" Even my mother was pleased to find 
I was satisfied and happy. 

I united with that church by baptism on 
Sunday, June 7th, 1885. The pastor left in 
about eight months, and we had various sup- 
plies for some time. It was during this 
period that I received the "second blessing," 
or, as it is often called, "sanctification." It 
came about in this way. I read in the reli- 
gious notices of a "Holiness" meeting to be 
held in South Providence, and I decided that 
I would like to attend it. I was not well 
enough acquainted with Providence to know 
where to find the place, so I spoke to one of 
the members of our church about going with 
me. "What is a Holiness meeting?" I 
asked. "It sounds good to me." Sarah 
shrugged her shoulders and advised me not 
to go at the risk of being thought queer; but 
all that she said only made me more deter- 
mined, and at last she promised to accompany 
me. 

As we neared the place of meeting that 
Sunday afternoon the singing was inspiring — 
"You may have the joy bells ringing in your 



NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 25 

heart" — and the music seemed to fill me with 
such joy that I felt that I was getting a new 
experience already. As the room was seem- 
ingly full, seats were found near the door. 
Everything impressed me favorably. There 
were about three hundred present and their 
faces were shining with intelligence and spir- 
itual power; there was no display of dress or 
jewelry; I felt that I was among my own, and 
I was ready to listen to the word that pro- 
ceeded from such v^holesome sensible peo- 
ple. 

The preacher opened his Bible. That was 
right; I opened mine too. We read the 
twenty-third verse of the fifth chapter of 
First Thessalonians : "And the God of peace 
himself sanctify you wholly; and may your 
spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, 
without blame at the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." As the preacher emphasized 
the word sanctify the people responded, and 
I said to myself that this must be the key- 
note of holiness. I marked all the verses that 
the speaker gave us; it was really a Bible 
reading on the subject. I was delighted. 
New visions were opening to me out of the 



26 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

old Book that I loved so well. Why had I 
not seen these things before? Had I been 
blind? Jesus said them; John, Peter, James 
and Paul had preached them and had written 
them for my benefit; and I had been in the 
family of Christ for four years and had not 
seen them. Why, the preacher was giving u§ 
the very honey and cream of heaven; and I 
was so hungry that I was just swallowing it 
down. 

As soon as the speaker finished my friend 
and I left the hall, as I had to lead the young 
people's meeting that night and we had about 
three miles to walk. We had only gone a 
few streets, and were now in Adelaide Grove, 
when Sarah said: "What do you think of the 
Holiness people?" I was not thinking of 
people just then, but of the truth which I 
had heard, so precious, so real, so true that 
its power was coursing through my being in 
electric quivers, and I said: "Sarah, on my 
seat in that hall I accepted Jesus as my Sanc- 
tifier. I believe this is a second definite, posi- 
tive work of the Holy Spirit in my soul. I 
knew when I was born again ; now I have seen 
advanced truth; I am sanctified by faith in 



NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 27 

Jesus just now." As I finished my testimony 
the Holy Spirit flooded my soul, and I cried, 
"Praise the Lord, it is in his Word!" We 
stood still in that grove while I poured out 
my belief and my praises, and Sarah said, 
"Annie, I do believe God has done something 
for you, for your face shines." But, like 
Moses, I did not know it. 

I could hardly walk home ; I longed to fly 
to tell our people what God had done for 
me. My friend had to go home, as she had 
an aged mother to care for ; but I went on to 
the church. I was a few minutes late, which 
was unusual for me; and the young people 
came to meet me. As they saw me they ex- 
claimed: "Miss Coope, how beautiful you 
look! Where have you been? Tell us 
quickly." I thought: "Can this be true? If 
it is it only proves the Scripture: *He will 
beautify the meek with salvation,' " Psalm 
149 : 4. I felt the beauty within uplifting me. 

I cannot recall all that I said, but I poured 
out my soul to them; and I had them all turn 
to their Bibles to verify the things which I 
was telling them. While thus talking the 
deacon who supplied as pastor came in so 



28 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

quietly that I did not notice him, and after 
listening for a time he came forward and said 
to the young people ; ^' All that our sister has 
been telling you is true. I have longed for 
such an experience myself: let us kneel down 
and pray that God may give us this blessing 
now." We then had an altar service, the first 
that I had seen in the church. While we 
were on our knees the older members of the 
church came for the evening service, and find- 
ing a manifestation of the Holy Spirit re- 
mained also to pray. Many were blessed that 
night. 

All these things were only preparing me 
for service. I was learning to know God 
for myself, to find out through His Word what 
he would have me do. I continually kept 
before my own mind the thought that God 
wanted me to be a witness for Him to those 
who sat in darkness, and from this time my 
purpose was fixed though the way did not 
open directly. I was greatly interested in 
Sunday-school and young people's work, mis- 
sions, and open-air services, and thus step 
by step my training was being carried on 
though I went to no training school. 



NEW LIFE IN A NEW LAND 29 

Several American missionaries from the 
West Indies had spoken in our church, and 
as a result my interest was turned definitely 
in that direction. Theirs was a work of faith. 
They were under no Board, but went out 
trusting God to supply every need for body 
and soul, and I felt that this was just what 
I would like to do. I had read the life of 
George Miiller of Bristol, England, and his 
great faith encouraged me to step out on the 
promises of God. Belief in divine healing 
came to be a part of my life, and I have al- 
ways carried any sickness to Him rather than 
to a physician. 



CHAPTER III 

TO THE WEST INDIES AND HOME AGAIN 

IT was in the fall of 1897 that I took my 
first definite step toward the foreign field. 
Some of the missionaries from the West In- 
dies had spoken of the need for workers there, 
and I decided to go with them. Their condi- 
tions were absolute trust in God for all things ; 
and that met with my approval. So after get- 
ting clearly the mind of God in the matter, 
I announced in the church that I was going 
to the West Indies by the first boat that I 
could catch. I knew nothing of the cost; 
I never asked the superintendent of the mis- 
sion one question about money matters, for 
all the workers had said that those who felt 
called of God to labor with them must trust 
God to supply the means. So I was trust- 
ing. I had felt the "Woe is me if I preach 
not the gospel," and I was going to do it. I 
went from that service and began that night 

30 



TO THE WEST INDIES 31 

to look over my wardrobe to put it in order 
for going away. 

It may be asked if I had not saved enough 
money to at least start me on my trip. True 
I was called a good weaver and had earned 
excellent wages; but, English fashion, had 
given every cent of it to my mother except 
the Lord's tenth. I took that out before her 
eyes, saying: ^^Mother, this is God's money, 
not mine and not yours." She said that I was 
a crank, and I answered : "Yes, I am a crank, 
turned by Bible truth and Holy Ghost 
power." 

Mother heard before I reached home, of 
my declaration in church, and she at once 
asked : "Where are you going to get the money 
to go on your wild-goose chase?" 

"From God," I answered; "He has called 
me to go, and He will pay all the expenses." 

The following Sunday a young woman 
member of the church put a five-dollar bill 
into my hand, saying: "I believe God has 
called you to go to the foreign field, and I 
want to share in your blessings." It felt very 
strange for me to take it, and I thanked her 
with mingled feelings. I had never received 



32 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

money from any one before, not even as 
Christmas or birthday gifts ; and here five dol- 
lars had been given by a young woman who 
worked hard for it, keeping boarders. It 
meant sacrifice for her. I felt that God was 
very near; that this was a token of His ap- 
proval and an earnest of what was to come. 
I was very glad that God had let a poor work- 
ing girl help me first. 

On the same Sunday, at night, one of the 
deacons, Daniel Potter, a godly man and the 
richest one in our church from every point 
of view, rose and said : "I will be responsible 
for our sister Anna's expenses to the West 
Indies." 

What more did I need? God had pro- 
vided, and that right quickly! I did not even 
handle the money; the ticket was given to 
me, and that sufBced. I did not talk of my 
needs; I never do. I am to be about my 
Father's business and He takes care of me. 
"I'm the child of a King," and no beggar; my 
Father can speak better for me than I can for 
myself, so I let Him. 

I packed my trunk, quite delighted with 
God's arrangements for me; and my mother, 



TO THE WEST INDIES 33 

helping me, did not raise an objection. Some 
of the neighbors came in to act as Job's com- 
forters, saying: "How can you let your only 
child go away so far? Why don't you stop 
her? She ought not to leave such a good 
home," and similar remarks. 

But mother was staunch in her defense. 
"You can talk all you like about her going 
away," she said ; "and while I don't want her 
to go if I could have my own way, still I 
would far rather see her go than marrying 
such men as you are giving your daughters 
to! No, I have confidence in my girl; she is 
doing right and is going to help others to do 
right. I'm not right myself, but that is my 
own fault." 

That was talk that went right home, and 
the neighbors did not bother her any more. 

Then there was my father to be reckoned 
with. He said that I was a fool, with an 
oath before and after, and blamed mother be- 
cause he said she was helping me in my fool- 
ishness. All the mother in her rose to the 
occasion. "Harry, you have been threaten- 
ing for years to put Annie out of the house be- 
cause she had religion. Now she is going 



34 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

herself, and you will be well rid of her and 
her preaching. Let her go!" 

For years my father had been angry with 
me, often locking the door at night and or- 
dering my mother not to wait for me to come 
in, though I was rarely later than nine o^clock. 
Mother would listen for my footsteps and 
slip down and let me in, frequently bring- 
ing down a storm upon her head for doing 
so. I was often advised to leave home be- 
cause of his treatment; but I felt that I must 
bear opposition patiently: that it was really 
a part of my training for service; if I could 
not bear unsympathetic and unkind treat- 
ment at home, how could I bear what I would 
have to meet on the mission field? Besides 
I really loved my father and prayed for him, 
and I had the assurance that some day he 
would be saved. The road from our house to 
the church was a very lonely one, and father 
often said that he wished I would be attacked ; 
but his wishes were never fulfilled. I was 
God's child and the angel of the Lord en- 
camped about me and delivered me. For 
thirteen years I had a special guard, a body- 
guard, and I rejoice as I look back over those 



TO THE WEST INDIES 35 

experiences, for through them I learned to 
walk by faith, to know God as a personal com- 
panion and to lean on Him for help. God 
was very close to me during my three weeks 
of preparation for my journey, though my 
father never spoke to me during that time nor 
did he say good-by to me. 

I sailed from New York on October 2nd, 
1897, and stopped at several of the West In- 
dian Islands, holding meetings and distribut- 
ing tracts. When we arrived at Martinique, 
where this party of missionaries had opened 
the first Protestant mission to the French 
Catholics on the island, the superintendent 
asked me to stay for a time. I could not 
speak a word of French, but I did hand out 
tracts and speak a few times, one of the mem- 
bers of the mission interpreting. I saw the 
first Protestant converts baptized here. What 
ignorance, wickedness and idolatry there were 
in that city! It is little wonder that God 
overthrew it! 

After six weeks' stay in Martinique I went 
to Barbadoes, and in January, 1898, there was 
an annual convention of the workers in the 
islands. All the native workers who could 



36 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

come did so. One young woman came from 
Bolivar, Venezuela, South America, and she 
told of the Indians living in huts on the 
banks of the Orinoco River, of their pov- 
erty, their sad, dejected appearance and their 
appeal for some one to come and teach them. 
Her story touched my heart, and I said: 
"Lord, if you want me to go to the Indians of 
South America, make it plain to me." Like 
Gideon I laid down my fleece before Him, 
asking that He would show me by my abil- 
ity to learn the Spanish language whether I 
had the fitness to go there. After a long talk 
and prayer with the missionary who had 
brought the tidings of this neglected people, 
I went out and bought a small book called 
"Spanish at a Glance" and began to study it. 
I certainly did not learn the language at a 
glance — far from it! — but I was enthusiastic 
from the start, and my teacher soon declared 
that I was getting beyond her. I had not 
much time for study, but I improved every 
spare moment; my book and I were insep- 
arable. I considered that this was a leading 
from God, because I had never before been 
able to tolerate a foreign language. My 



TO THE WEST INDIES 37 

teacher stayed only a few weeks, and I was 
obliged after that to get on as best I could 
alone; but I loved the language and stuck 
to it. 

I remained in Barbadoes for two years or 
more, when a party of us started for Porto 
Rico soon after the close of the Spanish- 
American War. I was the only one in the 
party of four who could speak Spanish, and 
I was kept busy for two months holding open- 
air meetings, visiting from house to house and 
distributing tracts and Gospel portions to 
those who could read and reading to those 
who could not. 

At the end of this time I received a letter 
from home saying that my mother could not 
live and that I was needed at home at once. 
I left by the next steamer, glad to go where 
the Lord called me, but sad because of the 
thousands in darkness whom I was leaving be- 
hind me. 

I found my mother still alive but beyond 
human aid, and still unsaved. She was very 
glad to see me again and we talked much that 
night, mostly concerning her soul's condition. 
She brought forward as her defense her mo- 



38 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

rality and her good deeds, while I did my 
best to show her the way through Jesus' blood 
as the only heaven-appointed way. A new 
birth, a complete surrender of all that we 
think we are, belief in the Lord Jesus Christ 
and confession of sin, with the witness of the 
Holy Spirit, were the truths that I brought 
before her continually for two weeks, and 
many were praying for her at the same 
time. 

At last, under the fire of such Catling guns 
of heaven, she surrendered; and oh, what a 
change! She was indeed a new creature, and 
for three weeks she preached Jesus to all who 
came to see her, telling them that if she had 
died depending on her own respectability to 
plead for her she would have been lost. She 
urged my father to repent; but he was so 
grieved at the thought of losing her that he 
did not pay any attention to his own souPs 
need. 

In my mother's rejoicing over her new 
vision of spiritual things she exclaimed: "Oh, 
Annie, is this what you have been talking 
about all these years! I thought sometimes 
that you were crazy, but I am so glad that 



TO THE WEST INDIES 39 

you were true to God and persevered in do- 
ing what you felt called to do. If I had 
known this fifty years ago I would have been 
a missionary and gone everywhere to tell 
about Jesus. I did think you were foolish to 
leave a good home and go out to work among 
black folks, not knowing how you would be 
treated, but now I understand it all. Go 
again when the way opens. You will have 
a hard time with your father, but it won't be 
for so very long. Do what God tells you. I 
am going home, but I shall be watching for 
you." 

Mother went to be with her Saviour Sep- 
tember 24th, 1900, and I could only rejoice in 
her triumphant death. 

Now there was another complete change in 
my life, for plainly my duty now was with 
my father. For more than six years I re- 
mained at home with him, working at my 
trade of weaving to support us both, as he 
was now over seventy. We owned our home 
and were very comfortable. Father worked 
in his garden and among his chickens and was 
quite well for years ; then he had a stroke and 
was unable to leave his bed, but was perfectly 



40 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

conscious during the last four weeks of his 
life. 

Nine days before he died he called to me 
early in the morning: ^' Annie, bring your 
Bible and teach me the way to heaven!" 

I was so filled with joy that I can't tell how 
I got hold of the blessed Book and hurried to 
his side. God had answered prayer. Here 
was a helpless old man seventy-eight years of 
age, who had turned from God all his life, 
now wanting to be shown how to come to Him ! 
Surely our God is longsuff ering ! I quoted 
John 3:16 to him thus: "God so loved 
Henry Coope that he gave his only-begotten 
Son, that if Henry Coope believeth in Him 
Henry Coope should not perish, but have 
everlasting life," and Isaiah i : 18: "Though 
Henry Coope's sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow; though Henry Coope's sins 
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
As I finished he said: "Pray for me!" 

"Oh, no," I answered ; "it is your turn to 
pray now. I've prayed for you for twenty 
years ; your mother prayed ; your wife prayed ; 
now you must pray." 

"I don't know what to say." 



TO THE WEST INDIES 41 

I told him to tell God that he was a sinner, 
and he said : ^'God knows I am." 

"Yes, but the Bible says: ^If we confess our 
sins He is faithful and just to forgive us.' You 
want Him to forgive you: tell Him so. Do 
you feel happy?" 

"No, I feel bad, miserable." 

"Then tell him so." 

"Why, doesn't He know all that?" 

"Yes; but He said, ^Come, let us reason to- 
gether,' so you see He wants you to talk to 
Him. Tell Him everything that is in your 
heart that is hurting you and making you mis- 
erable. He will cleanse you. Do it now." 

He began slowly: "God, be — mer — ci — ful 
to m — e, a sin — ner," holding on to his words 
and repeating them again. Suddenly he 
cried, "Oh, it is done!" 

"What is done?" 

"God has forgiven me! I know it! I 
know it!" His face was illumined ; he looked 
fairly beautiful. 

I was so happy that I fairly danced through 
the house, and I felt that the angels were re- 
joicing with me. Talk of joy! Indeed the joy 
of the Lord is our strength. It was four o'clock 



42 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

in the morning, and I at once sat down to 
write the good news to some of my friends. 
One letter was to a preacher in the West In- 
dies who had criticized my staying at home 
with my father, saying that I was wasting my 
time when I had a call to the foreign field; 
that I ought to leave him in a Home for 
the Aged and go and preach. I told him that 
though this man was my father I knew he was 
a great sinner, and I felt that God had given 
me this heathen at home to convert before I 
could go to the Indians; that this was a part 
of my training for future work and that if I 
wanted God's blessing I must do the duty that 
lay right before me. 

My father began to preach to our nearest 
neighbor that same morning at eight o'clock, 
thus proving that "with the heart man believ- 
eth unto righteousness and with the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation." For nine 
days he lived to tell the story that Jesus had 
saved him. He said he was like the Prodigal 
Son, but the Heavenly Father had taken him 
home, and he just rested with childlike confi- 
dence on the promises of God. 



CHAPTER IV 

UP THE ORINOCO TO SAN ISIDRO 

IN a month after my father's death I had 
disposed of the property and furniture and 
was at liberty to go where I was called. Part 
of the money that came from the sale I sent 
to India and Japan to work where I could 
not go, for I could trust God to supply my 
needs. I spent a few months in the home of 
a friend, one of the founders of the Christian 
Mission to the West Indies, doing church 
work, and a few months more in Rescue Mis- 
sion work in Providence, R. I., and Brockton, 
Mass. Then in November, 1907, I started to 
find my Indian mission field, in company with 
several missionaries who were to settle in the 
various islands of the West Indies. 

I stopped at the island of Trinidad to wait 
for a steamer bound for Venezuela on the 
mainland of South America, but as yellow 
fever and the bubonic plague were on the 

43 



44 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

island no steamer could leave there, so I went 
to Bridgetown, on the island of Barbadoes, 
for several months, believing that God would 
open up the way in time. In the meantime 
I received a letter from one of the missionaries 
who had been in Venezuela a few years, trav- 
eling up the Orinoco River as a Bible colpor- 
ter. He said that in his travels he came to 
an Indian village whose chief kindly enter- 
tained him for three days, and after listening 
to the old, old story of Jesus, bought a Span- 
ish Bible, saying: ^'I cannot read, but I will 
get some one to read it to me." As he took 
the Book he said: "Gracias a Dios por este 
libror "Thank God for this book!" When 
I read that letter I resolved that I would go 
to this chief, and I prayed God to help me and 
to convert him. 

But my faith was to be tested again. For 
months every vessel for Venezuela was quar- 
antined, so that no passenger from Barbadoes 
was allowed to go. Many said that it would 
be better to stay in the islands, but my heart 
was set on work among the Indians, and this 
colporter's message seemed to me to be God's 
way of directing me. I managed to get a let- 



UP THE ORINOCO 45 

ter through telling the colporter that I was 
coming, and he wrote back saying that he 
would take me to the Indian village, although 
it was five years since he had been there him- 
self, and urged me to come at once if pos- 
sible. 

But now came another testing time for me. 
Before leaving the United States I had noticed 
a lump or swelling on my tongue, but thought 
lightly of it. When I had reached the West 
Indies I found it was larger, and later on it be- 
gan to give me some pain. I thought seriously 
of visiting a physician, and finally did so. 
He told me the swelling needed attention, and 
the sooner the better. I decided, however, 
to talk to my Saviour, the Great Physician, 
and carried my trouble to Him in earnest 
prayer. I did not speak to any one of the 
pain I suffered, nor did I try to think the pain 
was imaginary. I, however, experienced a 
strong faith that God would help me, and ere 
long I noticed that the swelling was disap- 
pearing, and in a short time was entirely gone. 
As a consequence, I felt in my heart a great 
joy, and told the glad news to all the house- 
hold and to all my friends, realizing that what 



46 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

I had experienced was an evidence of God's 
goodness, faithfulness and power. 

At last one morning one of the members of 
our band came into the house saying excitedly, 
"There is a steamer in the bay now which is 
not quarantined and is bound directly for Bol- 
ivar City, Venezuela. It is a cattle boat, but 
perhaps it will take passengers." 

I urged him to go at once and secure pas- 
sage for me if possible, for I was all ready 
to start, and he was able to secure a place for 
myself and the two colored women who were 
going with me, though only after a long dis- 
cussion with the agent, who said that the cat- 
tle ship was no fit place for a white woman. 
Finally he put the responsibility on the cap- 
tain, saying that if he would take me it would 
be all right, and getting this much assurance 
we packed our belongings and went aboard, 
believing that God would make a place for 
us. We carried food for the three days' voy- 
age and expected to eat it on deck, picnic fash- 
ion, but it turned out that we were even better 
provided for than we had expected. 

The three days were happy ones. I had 
my folding organ and we played and sang for 



UP THE ORINOCO 47 

the pleasure of all. The captain, a Nor- 
wegian, said that it was like having church 
all day. He told us about himself, his fam- 
ily and his plans, and we talked of Jesus and 
His power to save us now from all sin. He 
told us that this was an ill-fated vessel and 
never made a voyage without having a death ; 
but I told him there would be no death on it 
during this voyage, and there was not. He 
told us that if he got that load of cattle to 
its destination in Bolivar City and the ship 
back to one of the West Indian Islands, he 
would return to his family. We urged him to 
accept Jesus as his Saviour; but, though he 
said he wished he could have the assurance 
and the comfort that I had, and seemed 
moved, he did not really yield, though he said 
he "would try to serve God." He was most 
courteous to us, for instead of letting us sit 
in a corner and eat our food from lunch-boxes, 
he had good meals cooked and a waiter to 
serve us at table. We, like brother Paul, had 
command, under God, of that ship. 

The poor captain did not live long after 
that. He went to a town about three miles 
away on business and contracted yellow fever 



48 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

and died before he had gotten his cargo. We 
heard this from one of the crew whom we met, 
who would not go back to the steamer, and 
he said that the captain asked several times 
for me, but they did not know where to find 
me in the city. 

We were now ready to start up the Orinoco 
River when we found a boat to take us, and 
after seven days of waiting and looking we 
found a man who owned a small boat who was 
willing to undertake the journey. He and a 
young boy did the rowing. They worked 
steadily all day and at sunset tied up the boat 
in a little cove and we all went ashore. We 
were so crowded in the little boat that it was 
out of the question to think of sleeping there, 
and we were weary from the long journey in 
such cramped quarters with the sun beating 
down upon us, so that it was a relief to get 
out on the white sandy bank and be able to 
move about. We must sleep somewhere, but 
the question was where, and we were to make 
an early start in the morning. 

After a little supper I suggested that we lie 
down on the sand, and the captain, a Span- 
iard, kindly offered us some tarpaulin; that, 



UP THE ORINOCO 49 

spread on the ground, would be a protection 
from sand-fleas. My girls declared that they 
would not lie on the ground; they preferred 
to sit up all night; but I was glad to rest lying 
down even if it was on the sand, and I slept 
for perhaps half an hour when I was awak- 
ened by the excited twittering of some birds 
in the bushes near by. The sun had set, so 
I knew that the birds ought to be asleep, and 
I felt that there was trouble. I sprang to my 
feet crying: "Look out! there is some danger 
near!" The captain came running to the 
spot and exclaimed: "Ahi un cuebra aqui!" 
— "There is a snake here!" Of course we 
were all wide awake by this time, and sure 
enough, in a moment a great yellow and 
black striped snake glided near. "Look for 
a stick or a stone; screaming won't kill 
him!" I exclaimed; but instantly the cap- 
tain had whipped out his knife and struck 
at the snake's head and he was soon dis- 
patched. 

After that adventure there was no thought 
of sleeping for my three girls — another 
young colored woman who could speak Span- 
ish had joined our party. But I said, "A 



50 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

dead snake can't harm us and I am going to 
sleep." 

"But its mate may come to see where the 
other one is;" objected the frightened girls. 

"Well, if it does, the birds will notify us. 
God has special guardians around us. Trust 
Him and go to sleep ; you need the rest." 

The girls were not willing to lose conscious- 
ness, but I slept sweetly until about three in 
the morning, when we were called to start on 
our journey again. 

The next night we beached in another shel- 
tered cove, cooked our evening meal and were 
preparing to sleep on the beach again when 
a party of Spaniards came running toward us 
and asked the captain if he had any rum to 
sell. One of the men wanted to know what 
I was doing here in this black crowd, and I 
told him that I was going to the Indians to 
tell them of Jesus who died to save all who 
would believe, and I talked of Jesus to these 
men. They said that the Indians were of no 
account; I ought not to waste my time on 
them. Would I not come and live in their 
house and teach them English? They in- 
vited us up to their house and treated us very 



UP THE ORINOCO 51 

civilly, saying that we could hang our ham- 
mocks in the house and inviting us to play 
cards to pass the evening. We could see that 
they did not know Jesus, and I so turned the 
conversation on heavenly things that there was 
no card-playing that night. 

We hung our hammocks on the piazza, as 
the house was saturated with their everlast- 
ing cigar smoke. The girls could not sleep 
there either; but I committed myself into my 
Father's hands and slept. The next morning 
the Spaniards gave us all the milk we could 
drink and a few pounds of home-made cheese. 
See how the Lord provides! These men 
looked ferocious with their pistols in their 
belts, their unkempt hair and rough clothing. 
But they had hearts that responded to kind 
words and they listened attentively to the story 
of Jesus. 

The third day's journey took us through 
a beautiful country that would ^ have de- 
lighted the heart of an artist, and I enjoyed 
every moment of this succession of lovely 
views, praising God that He had made such 
a beautiful world. We went ashore about 
five o'clock. There were still thirteen miles 



52 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

to be traveled before we reached San Isidro, 
the place for which we had started, and this 
part of the journey would be by land. The 
first thing to be thought of for the night was 
a place to sleep. There was an adobe house 
near the shore where the traders lived and 
stored their hides on their trips from the in- 
terior. It was empty now, for the men were 
away buying hides, so our belongings were 
taken to the house. 

I said that the house was empty, but we 
had no sooner entered than we found that its 
roof of palm leaves was inhabited by snakes, 
bats, spiders, and other crawling things un- 
known to us. There was one room with two 
doors and no windows, but one of the doors 
was so strongly fastened that we could not 
force it open. However we made a fire to 
try to smoke out the tribes, but without suc- 
cess; they were quite used to smoke! The 
bats still hung up, the whip-snakes only 
twined in and out to show us that they were 
very much alive, and the other inhabitants 
evinced similar activity. There was a house 
near by, and I asked the Spaniards there if 
these things were dangerous. "Esta nada;" 



UP THE ORINOCO 53 

they replied, which meant ^That's nothing," 
so I said to the girls: "I don't believe in being 
afraid of nothing. I am going to sleep" ; and 
in spite of their remonstrances I proceeded to 
stretch my cot and have a good rest, American 
style ! 

We had to wait there two days for the 
coming of the traders who were to guide us 
further on our journey, and we improved the 
time by visiting the two Spanish families near 
us, playing and singing in Spanish for them 
and giving them Gospel portions and tracts. 
One man could read ; we heard him reading to 
his family and others, so we felt that we had 
done a little missionary work. 

On the third day toward evening the trad- 
ers, who had come down with a load of skins 
the day before, told us that they were leav- 
ing, as it was a full moon and it was cooler to 
travel by night, and I thought that a moon- 
light trip would be delightful and that we 
would be in San Isidro by morning. But 
they had evidently planned differently, for 
after we had gone about two miles they came 
to a stop at a large adobe house. The owner 
of it was an old man who had a large cattle 



54 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

ranch, several wives and many retainers. We 
found that it was he who owned the house 
where we had spent two nights, and he wanted 
us now to stay here for the night. As the 
men were unhitching the oxen from the 
carts, we knew that there was nothing else to 
do. 

As we neared the dwelling and saw several 
women about we expected to find that the 
feminine touch had made that dwelling a 
home. But we were disappointed. Such 
filth I had never seen! We had to pick our 
way over piles of refuse, through swarms of 
flies, pigs, dogs and pools of tobacco juice. 
Whew! this was worse than bats and lizards 
and snakes! As we went into the house the 
pigs — fourteen of them — almost tripped us 
up. Everybody, men, women and children, 
was smoking. What an atmosphere for the 
old man, who was very sick! I counted the 
next morning, when I could see, sixteen per- 
sons, twelve dogs and fourteen pigs, all of 
whom did their best to entertain us. The 
mosquitoes and flies swarmed; lizards jumped 
across our laps to catch flies — everything 
seemed to think we were one with the crowd. 



UP THE ORINOCO 55 

On the rafters was a gruesome sight — a coffin 
just waiting for that old man to die! 

In the midst of that filth and confusion we 
were invited to hang our hammocks! I 
thanked them for their kind invitation but 
told them that we preferred to sleep outside, 
it was so nice and cool, and we did so. 

The next morning all were astir early. 
The sick man wanted to talk with us again. 
He asked how much money we were going 
to get for coming up this way. We told him, 
*'A hundredfold in this life, and in the world 
to come life everlasting." We asked him if 
he understood that. He said, "Oh, yes, yes," 
but for fear he did not we explained that God 
loved the world and gave Jesus His Son to die 
for us; that we believed in Jesus and knew 
that our sins were forgiven; and that as Jesus 
had said that His disciples were to go into all 
the world to preach His gospel, that was why 
we were coming this way to tell the Indians, 
and he added: "And me." "Yes, you;" we 
replied. We told him that we had not bar- 
gained with God for money, and as no man 
or society had sent us we did it for love. He 
said: "Good! good!" 



56 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

One of the women brought us a calabash of 
milk. It is true that as she carried it, her 
thumbs were in the milk and in one hand she 
held a long black cigar, but she smiled as she 
offered the "lordly dish." The bowl was so 
greasy that I had to put my thumbs as hooks 
to hold on to it, and there were islands of 
fertilizer floating on the top of the milk, but 
there was nothing else to do, so I blew them 
aside as well as I could and put my lips di- 
rectly into the milk instead of against the bowl 
and drank it. My girls were horrified and 
would not touch it themselves, but my host- 
ess was delighted to see me enjoy her hospi- 
tality. 

We left that place about eight o'clock and 
started for our eleven-mile walk. I sug- 
gested that we follow the wagons of the trad- 
ers, but our guide said that he could take us 
a better and shorter way, so we tramped up 
hill and down, wading rivers and so getting 
beautifully cooled off, for four hours, when 
we could see the top of a house here and there 
in the distance. There was no well-beaten 
track, the grass grew in humps and the walk- 
ing was hard; but we were nearing our In- 



UP THE ORINOCO 57 

dians, which rejoiced our hearts; and as we 
had been so cramped for three days on the 
boat this was good exercise for a change. 

About two o'clock the man said that he had 
evidently gotten out of the way; and as one 
of the girls was very much exhausted, I told 
him to go on alone and perhaps he could find 
the road again. We prayed the Lord to di- 
rect the man, who was now very uneasy about 
us, because the wagons held all our food and 
belongings, and we might have to stay in this 
spot all night; then we put up our umbrellas 
to form a tent and I slept sweetly for three 
hours. 

When we thought it was about time for the 
man to come back we began to sing in order 
to guide him, and by-and-by he appeared, ac- 
companied by two Indian boys and a donkey 
for the white lady to ride on, a gourd full 
of water and some cassava bread. We just 
praised the Lord to see them all. The man 
said that the carts were unloaded and the 
whole village was waiting to welcome us, and 
that the chief had sent the donkey. I had 
never ridden any animal, but the Lord had 
evidently provided this donkey for the girl 



58 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

who was so lame. She knew how to ride and 
mounted, the boy leading the animal and the 
rest of us following them. The water tasted 
delicious and we nibbled the bread as we 
walked, for we did not want to lose time, it 
was so nearly sundown. We soon reached 
the river which separated us from the village, 
and the Indians began to carry our things 
over. We would have to be carried over also, 
as the river was too deep to wade and none 
of us could swim, so while we were waiting 
the girls made a fire and boiled some cocoa 
and we had a good feast of bread and cheese 
before we went on. 

Once over the river, the chief's wife greeted 
us warmly, took off my hat and tried it on, 
examined me thoroughly, took my hair down 
and untied my shoes; I had a real massage 
treatment. It rested my head to have it 
rubbed, so I let them go on. I laughed and 
they laughed, and so we became acquainted. 

We were shown our new home by moon- 
light. It was simply a huge umbrella, with 
no walls and so of course no windows; we 
could have the air freely! One of the In- 
dians wanted to know what was in the black 



UP THE ORINOCO 59 

box which formed a part of our baggage, so I 
opened it and began to play. Oh, joy, what a 
delight that was ! One of the women made us 
a lamp by taking a leaf, rubbing some kind 
of grease on it and hanging it on the door-post 
of our house. Its flickering light made the 
whole scene weird enough to suit the most ro- 
mantic nature. 

It was Saturday night. I played and sang 
until hoarse, and then we knelt down and 
prayed for these people among whom we had 
come, then I told them to go home and 
come again to-morrow. But they never 
moved! I counted seventy- five men, over 
fifty women and some children. When they 
made no move to go away I had them put 
out our cots and I lay down on mine. I had 
not been undressed for six nights, but another 
night would not matter. The girls said: 
"You surely won't try to sleep with this crowd 
around!" But I said: "Yes, I am through 
business for to-night; I can't hold my head up 
any longer. You may entertain them if you 
want to keep awake, but as for me, I am going 
to sleep." 

About daylight I opened my eyes, and there 



6o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

stood my friends of the night before as mo- 
tionless as wooden men and women. ^^Girls," 
I called; "are you asleep?" 

"Asleep!" they answered with such disgust 
in their tones that I laughed and laughed till 
even the Indians grunted and some of them 
showed their teeth in a smile. "Do you think 
we could sleep with these wild Indians stand- 
ing over us?" 

"Have they really been here all night?" I 
asked incredulously. 

"Yes, indeed, all this time they have stood 
over you like that, and here we have sat with 
our hearts in our throats fearing that they 
would kill you and scalp us." 

Then and there I preached a sermon to my 
Christian helpers about trusting in God. 
"Don't you see," I said, "how God has 
guarded us every step of the way since we 
came into this land? He has protected us 
from snakes and all hurtful things, has raised 
up friends where we had not looked for them, 
and now has let these men stand guard over 
us all night to protect us from we do not know 
what danger. Where is your faith? We 




Miss Coope's 



up-stairs tenement" at Rio Diablo. Native grass 
houses on the left. 




A nearer view of the author's home. The first floor is the school- 
house ani^ mission. Chief Robinson has on a black derby hat. 



UP THE ORINOCO 6i 

are on business for the King, and has He not 
promised to take care of us?" 

"Yes, we know that, but — " 

"You seem to ^but' so much against things 
that come in your way that the buts are rob- 
bing you of your needed rest through fear of 
man. Our God neither slumbers nor sleeps, 
and we can trust ourselves with Him." My 
experience for thirteen years along that lonely 
country road back in my home came to my 
mind, and I praised God for my training. 

While the girls prepared breakfast I played 
the organ, for the first words my Indian au- 
dience said to me after my morning greeting 
were: "Blanca senora, toca la musica" — 
"White lady, play the organ;" so they had 
evidently waited all night for that. I played 
for some time, then we ate our breakfast and 
prayed, and then I told the people that this 
was the Lord's day and God had commanded 
that we should not work on that day. We 
ourselves did as little work as possible. 

My first call was on the chief, who was very 
sick. I asked him if he had the Bible which 
he had bought of the colporter. He said he 



62 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

had not; that some Spaniard had taken it to 
read and had not returned it. He said he was 
glad that we had come to his village, and I 
answered, "I have come to live here and teach 
you and your people about Jesus." 

"Ah, white lady," he said ; "that is good, but 
why did you not come sooner? It is too late 
for me : I am dying." 

I hardly knew how to answer that poor dy- 
ing Indian, but I put up a petition to God 
for wisdom and told him that I had come as 
soon as I heard about him. That seemed to 
pacify him somewhat, but here was another 
question : "Did your people know this a long 
time ago? Why did they not come? My 
people have died and did not know; no one 
came from your land to tell us." 

I was smitten with grief at the backward- 
ness of our people and could say nothing. 
What would you who read these words have 
said? What will you say at the Judgment? 

The chief was so weak after our talk that 
it seemed as though the end was near. Here 
I had come to tell this man more about Jesus 
and his salvation, and he was going to die 
right before my eyes, in the dark, with only 



UP THE ORINOCO 63 

reproaches on his lips that we had not come 
sooner. I felt a wave of faith sweep over me, 
and said to the chief's brother: "Oh, let us 
pray! This man must not die yet; he is not 
saved! He must be saved, and I believe God 
will raise him up for that purpose." 

I knelt down by the side of his hammock 
and told him that I was going to pray to God 
to heal him so that he might live and hear 
the gospel of Jesus. He nodded his head 
feebly. I laid my hands on him and prayed 
and he broke out in a perspiration. I left 
him and went to visit others, returning home 
about five o'clock. We had just started a 
song service when the chief's wife came run- 
ning to the place of meeting, crying: "Oh, 
white lady, the chief is better, is better, is bet- 
ter!" She said that he slept after I left, for 
two hours, the first in two weeks, and when 
he woke he asked for a drink of milk and it 
had stayed on his stomach ; now he was sleep- 
ing again. I told the wife to praise God, for 
He had done this. God surely answered my 
prayer, for in a few days the chief came to see 
us and accepted Jesus that very day. 

On Monday I asked the Indians to build 



64 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

a wall of bamboos around one corner of our 
house so that we could have a bedroom, and 
we made the cots up with clean linen, hung 
up towels and arranged our belongings as 
tastefully as we could. When we had fin- 
ished our new home looked delightful to us, 
and to the poor Indian women who watched 
every movement, talking volubly over every 
arrangement, it must have seemed like a bit 
of fairyland. They exclaimed over every- 
thing and touched things as if they were 
afraid they might be alive. 

After I put up a piece of burlap to form 
a door they did not seem to think they could 
go past it, so I called one who seemed very 
anxious to look and took her inside. I showed 
her my looking-glass, and she ran toward the 
others with childish delight to let them see 
their faces; some were afraid of the self that 
they saw in the glass. After that exhibition 
she wanted to go in again, so I took her. This 
time she noticed the red and yellow cot cover 
one of the girls had, and taking it off of the 
cot she put it around her Indian fashion, 
slipped her feet into a pair of red carpet slip- 
pers, then taking down my hat and putting it 



UP THE ORINOCO 65 

on she walked out again wondrously arrayed. 
Her companions were delighted. 

I next showed the woman my cot, and she 
examined the springs and motioned to me to 
get in, which I did and drew the mosquito 
netting down. She thought that was fine; 
and when I got up she got in, and that was 
still finer! She brought all the women in to 
see the things from far away, and it was a 
great day for them. 

There were three brothers who lived eight 
miles from us who had lived with a Spanish 
family and learned to read. When they 
came to see us I gave them a New Testament 
and had them read to us and we read to 
them. They were so happy that they spent 
the day with us, and soon they accepted Jesus, 
and visited us often to learn more about the 
way of life. I often found them in the other 
houses talking of Christ and His love for all 
men. 

We had a service every afternoon, as that 
seemed the best time to reach the people. 
The Indians go to bed early and rise early 
as a rule. They stopped work about three 
o'clock, and we had our service from four to 



66 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

six usually and retired at sundown. This was 
really the most practical thing to do, for the 
mosquitoes came out in droves about that time 
and we were glad to get under the shelter of 
our nets. The netting did not shelter us from 
the snakes in the roof nor from the larger ones 
that sometimes came into our houses ; but God 
protected us and we were never bitten. 
Every morning we visited each house in the 
village, talking, reading, praying and sing- 
ing, and so, with the afternoon services and 
the morning round of visits, we kept in touch 
with both the men and women in a public way 
and in their home life. 



CHAPTER V 

WORK ENDED IN VENEZUELA 

FOR four months we lived in San Isidro. 
The chief sent men to the woods to cut 
logs to build us a house, and we picked out a 
lot high and dry and were planning to settle, 
when the chief became ill. He was appar- 
ently not seriously sick and was only a few 
days in bed. I called on him and talked of 
Jesus, and he seemed cheerful and did not 
speak of dying until the last day, when I said 
to him: "You are not going to leave us so 
quickly, are you?" and he replied; ^'Oh, no, 
sister, but if I do I shall go to Jesus. He has 
forgiven my sins and I am glad." 

After talking with him I visited other 
houses, finding several sick, and then went 
home. Soon the wife of the chief's sister 
came running to me crying: "The chief is 
dead ; he has gone to Jesus !" I could scarcely 
believe the news and went at once to the 



68 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

house. He had died two hours after I left 
him. His body was rolled in a sheet and laid 
in his hammock, with his hat, sandals and gun 
laid on top. Every one was weeping. I 
went to the widow and put my arm around 
her and wept with her. I could only say, 
"Gone to Jesus 1" and she nodded understand- 
ingly. 

Two other persons died that same week, 
and a fear came upon the rest that some dis- 
ease was going to carry them all off. After 
four days of mourning, weird singing and 
dancing around the chief's body, they carried 
it eight miles away to bury it. I went to the 
funeral. After that was over they burned the 
chief's house and many other houses, and the 
men came to tell me that they were going to 
the mountains; they had no chief, and until 
they appointed a new chief they would not 
live together again, and never on that spot, for 
death was there and they must go. 

"I will go with you," I said; "for I don't 
want to live here without you all. I have 
come to teach you and I will stay." 

"Oh, no, white lady, you go back to your 
people! The mountains are no place for 



WORK ENDED 69 

you; in the rainy season there is much sick- 
ness. We are glad you came to tell us about 
Jesus, and will not forget, but we are going 
far, far away." 

About that time an old man who had traded 
for years along that territory, going by mule- 
back with a pack of cloth, tobacco, etc., came 
to the village and saw the condition of things 
and talked with me. He said that this break- 
ing up was their custom, and he showed me 
the charred logs of a once large village where 
this tribe had lived. There had been small- 
pox, many had died, and wisely they had 
burned the houses and the dead to stop the 
disease. Then they had scattered, and about 
eight years ago had built this present village 
of about thirty houses, "which they will now 
desert," he said, "and live here and there scat- 
tered until they rally around a man in confi- 
dence to make him their chief." 

I have not spoken of these traders, but there 
had been several of them at the village while 
we had been there, and there were some inci- 
dents of our work that were brought about 
by their coming. They always brought rum 
and tobacco, and we had witnessed several 



70 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

sprees as the result of their visits. They were 
really thieves, for they robbed the poor In- 
dians shamefully. One of the industries of 
the village was the raising of cassava. The 
men cultivated it and the women grated, 
pressed and dried it, then made it into cakes, 
which were sold for ten cents apiece in the 
city. They made a great many daily, and 
when the traders did not come to rob them 
in exchange for liquor and tobacco, the men 
took the cakes overland on the backs of their 
donkeys and sent them by boat to the city. 

But often five or six men would come up 
with a load of rum and give the Indians 
enough to make them drunk, when they would 
take the cakes in "payment" for the liquor. 
That night two or three of the men would go 
off with a load of cakes, and the next morn- 
ing when the Indians were sober there would 
be a reckoning, when the traders would claim 
that they had not been paid or paid enough, 
and then more cakes had to be made to pay 
their ''debts." In order to coax them to do 
this the traders would give them more liquor, 
thus robbing them wholesale. The chief was 
wise and did not trade with them, and he and 



WORK ENDED 71 

some of the others told me about the robbery 
that went on. I told them that the next time 
a band of traders came the men must come to 
my house and not take any of the ^'treats" of 
rum offered to them. 

One afternoon a party came up and there 
was a great display of bottles. I sent one of 
the men to call all the village to my house 
and we kept them until sundown. During 
that meeting two of the Spanish traders came 
in, one with his machete, a long sword-like 
knife, and the other with a revolver in his 
belt. One sat behind me, the other sat in 
front. I spoke to them and they turned their 
heads. The girls, always fearful, said: ''Miss 
Coope, let the Indians go. These men are up 
to something bad; the one behind you will 
stick his knife into you." 

"Oh, no, he won't;" I answered. "You 
pray and trust God and He will keep us from 
harm." 

This conversation went on while I was find- 
ing another hymn, and we started to sing 
"Down at the Cross." As we sang the man 
in front of me took out his revolver and 
pointed it only about a foot from my face. 



72 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

I heard the girls exclaim, but I sang on and 
looked at him, and then one of the Indians, 
who, thank God, was sober, as were all the 
rest of them, sprang at the man and struck 
his arm from my face, while another caught 
him by the scruff of the neck. They made 
him fire his revolver six times into the air and 
held him while he unloaded all his ammuni- 
tion, and while this was going on the man 
with the machete slipped away. The service 
went on, and every man of the village except 
the two who were taking care of the would-be 
murderer stayed until sunset, when they 
quietly marched single-file to their own 
homes. There was no spree that night, and 
the traders, defeated, left early the next morn- 
ing, threatening to kill us because we had pre- 
vented the Indians from buying their rum. 
But I rejoiced in the words of David : 

"In God have I put my trust, I will not be 

afraid; 
What can man do unto me?" 

I was threatened with death another time, 
and it came about in this way. A Spaniard 



WORK ENDED 73 

came to the village with a woman to whom 
he was not married. He could read, and I 
talked to him of Jesus and read to him and 
gave him a Testament. He went to the home 
where they were staying for a few days, and 
God's Spirit took such hold of him that he 
could not sleep. He got up and read the 
New Testament and was convicted of sin. 
He told the woman that he was a sinner, and 
God would punish him and her too ; that they 
must separate; he would send her home in the 
morning. She vowed that she would kill me, 
as I had made all the trouble, and she started 
out with that intention. Her countenance 
was fierce as she entered my house, but I 
smiled, and as we were at family worship I 
gave her a seat and asked her if she could 
read, and as she said she could I gave her a 
Testament. She held the book, but kept 
looking at me, so, wondering if she really 
could read, I asked her to read a verse. She 
did it, and from that moment her attention 
seemed riveted to the book. Then as we 
were about to pray I told her so in order that 
she might understand our next move, but she 
began at once to talk about herself. She said 



74 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

that she was going to the city; that ^'her man" 
was sending her back; and she began to cry. 

'Why, is he not your husband?" I asked. 

"No," she answered; "and it is all through 
reading that book that he has turned against 
me. 

I saw that here was my "woman at the 
well" who needed the water of life, and I 
spent the morning talking, reading and pray- 
ing with her, letting my usual visiting pass 
for that time. She confessed that she had 
come there to kill me, but added: "I can't do 
it, for you are a good woman. I am bad, but 
I will read this book and pray to God to help 
me." She left in peace. The man remained 
a few days longer, then went farther into the 
interior, carrying his Testament with him. 
Truly the entrance of God's Word giveth 
light! 

The very day that I was planning to leave 
for the city this man returned to the village. 
That morning before daybreak I had prayed 
very definitely, "Lord, what shall I do?" and 
this scripture came forcibly to me: "Rise, 
and enter into the city, and it shall be told 
thee what thou must do." I just thanked the 



WORK ENDED 75 

Lord, for with that scripture there came into 
me a "Go ye" spirit, and soon after I rose, this 
man went by the house. I called him and 
told him that I was going to leave and asked 
him if he could get word to the man with the 
ox-wagons to come and take my things and he 
said that he would. We had a long talk, 
and he showed that he was very happy in his 
new life and said that he read the Testament 
daily. 

Another conversion made glad our hearts 
during our stay in the village. A young 
Spaniard of intelligence called on us. He 
had come to buy sugar and cakes from the 
chief and was told that there was a white lady 
in the village. He said that he could hardly 
believe it and he came to see if it were true. 
I told him that our reason for coming was to 
teach the Indians about Jesus, and he seemed 
to think that we were wasting our time. I 
quoted Jesus' command: "Go ye into all the 
world;" adding that this was a part of the 
"all," and that we had come at His command 
and because we loved Him. That opened the 
way to ask the young man about his own soul's 
condition and I gave him a Spanish Testa- 



76 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

ment. He was glad to get a new book and sat 
there and began to read it at once. 

This young man lived about sixteen miles 
from the village with his father and mother, 
two sisters and a little brother, and he an- 
nounced that he would bring them to see me. 
The following Sunday the father and mother 
came, riding in style mule-back. They 
brought milk and fresh meat and spent the 
day with us, and we told them of Jesus. 
They invited me to their home, but as I had 
no mule, and there were several rivers to ford, 
I never was able to visit them. 

The young man came to see us twice a 
week, however, eager to read and to question 
about the great things of salvation. The fa- 
ther was worried, asking when he came over 
one day: "Will any one go crazy from read- 
ing God's Book? My son tells my family so 
much about the Book that you are teaching 
him that I am afraid they will all be crazy. 
They sit up all night to read and talk." I 
told him that it would never make them crazy 
if they obeyed what they read, but if they dis- 
obeyed when they knew the truth it might 
make them crazy. I urged him to pray to 



WORK ENDED 77 

God in Jesus' name to help him and all of 
them to believe what they read and to obey 
it, and they would be made new creatures by 
the power of God coming into their hearts. 

I was not able to stay to see the results of 
this preaching of Christ; but I believed that 
God would take care of the seed sown in their 
hearts, and having given a testimony there 
among the Indians and seen the results, I 
could leave with the consciousness that I had 
done what I could and was ready now to go 
on to another field if it was God's will. 

Once more we packed up our belongings, 
said good-by to those whom we had lived 
among for four months, and started toward 
the river again. On our return trip we 
stopped at the home of the sick man on the 
cattle ranch where we had spent the night on 
our way up, swinging our hammocks in the 
porch. The man was much better and walk- 
ing around. We told him what God had 
done for the Indian chief of San Isidro and 
he asked us questions about heaven. I gave 
the family a New Testament that they could 
read for themselves, and they gave us milk 
and fruit. We did not spend a night at the 



78 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

landing-place, as the boat arrived almost im- 
mediately and we left. The boat was larger 
than the one we came up on, so that we slept 
on it even though there was not much room. 
It suited the girls better than lying on the 
beach and they were able to sleep. 

On my arrival at Bolivar City I found a 
quantity of mail waiting which the colporter 
had sent by some Indians that he knew lived 
in San Isidro. In one of my letters was a 
clipping from a religious paper about a 
woman missionary in Colon, Republic of 
Panama, who was going to the Panamanians, 
asking prayers for her. On the margin of the 
paper the sender had written: "This may be 
of interest to you." I wrote at once to the 
missionary and also made preparations to go 
back to Barbadoes, for my girls were not will- 
ing to go through any more experiences 
among Indians. We left Bolivar City May 
I St, 1909, having been in Venezuela exactly six 
months. I went first to Trinidad, where I la- 
bored two months in the Christian Mission, 
and then returned to Barbadoes. 



CHAPTER VI 

MY ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 

AFTER two months at Barbadoes I started 
for the Isthmus of Panama, and not hav- 
ing received any answer to my letter to the 
missionary inquiring about the Panamanians, 
I wrote to some of the members of the Chris- 
tian Mission inquiring if they knew of any 
Indians around there to whom the gospel had 
not been preached, and they replied that they 
had seen some walking along the streets of 
Colon, barefoot and poor looking, who evi- 
dently had not been reached by any mission- 
ary. 

When I reached Colon I found that the 
woman to whom I had first written had been 
sent to Jamaica for her health, which prob- 
ably accounted for my not hearing from her. 
Inquiring further, I found a Methodist min- 
ister in Panama City who said that he had 
had six men in his house from the San Bias 

79 



8o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

coast, one a chief and the other an ex-chief, 
who had pleaded with him to send a teacher 
to them, a woman, because no white man was 
allowed to stay on their islands over night. 
The ex-chief, John Davis, had left his boy 
of eleven with the minister, and as he brought 
him to me I spoke to my first San Bias Indian. 

At last I had found Indians who wanted a 
teacher, and more than that a woman teacher! 
I was ready to go at once, but there was still 
a delay. I had difficulty in getting a passage 
on any of the traders' vessels. Their plea was 
that their boats were not fitted for passengers. 
One man said that the missionaries would 
spoil his trade. 

"Spoil your trade!" I exclaimed. "We are 
not traders; what could we do to hurt your 
trade?" As he did not answer I added: "Of 
course if you sell rum to the Indians I shall 
certainly do my best to spoil that trade." 

He made no answer again, because he was 
guilty. He took it by barrels to sell to those 
people. That trade has been stopped now, 
however, I am thankful to say. 

I finally secured passage to Nombre-de- 



ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 8i 

Dios on the American tug that went there 
daily for sand for the foundation of the Gatun 
Locks. While waiting there for further 
transportation I preached Jesus and scattered 
tracts to a few who could read. This roused 
the ire of the Roman Catholic priest, who 
stood afar off one day when I was holding an 
open-air meeting. Some of his flock were in 
danger! He took the tracts and tore them up, 
scattering them along the street. 

At the end of a fortnight a small gasoline 
launch going up the coast stopped at Nombre- 
de-Dios and I secured passage on it. When 
the priest found that I, a Protestant, was go- 
ing to the Indians with that dreadful book, 
the Bible, going where some of his brethren 
had tried in vain to enter, he was furious. 
He tried to persuade the captain not to take 
me, but as my things were already aboard the 
launch and several were there to see me off, 
I said to the captain : "You'd better not touch 
my baggage! Those people around us are 
Americans; and Americans can do things!" 

He laughed and said: "Well, the padre does 
not want you to go up to the Indians." 



82 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

^^Never mind the padre;" I said decidedly. 
*^I am going up on your launch to those peo- 
ple because God wants me to!" 

There was much palavering between him 
and the priest, but I kept quiet and prayed, 
going aboard the launch and taking my seat 
next to the priest because there was no other 
place to sit. Still the boat did not go; they 
were waiting for me to change my mind. 
But there was no prospect of that! The 
Americans who had watched the proceedings 
thus far came up to the launch and said: "So 
you are going!" 

"Yes, I'm off." 

"It really doesn't seem safe :" "Look out for 
that man ; he is very angry." "That priest will 
harm you if he can." These were some of the 
comments ; but as they were in English, which 
the priest did not understand, he did not get 
their meaning unless he judged by actions and 
looks; while as for me, my mind was made 
up and there was no turning back, whatever 
the danger might be. Finally they started, 
with me on board! 

We stopped at several small villages on 
the mainland and slept that night on the 



ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 83 

launch. The next forenoon we arrived in 
the vicinity of two islands near the mouth of 
Rio Diablo, the Devil River, in the Depart- 
ment of Colon. The chief of the smaller 
island came on board the launch. He could 
speak a little English and asked me where I 
was going. I told him to Mona, which is 
about forty miles farther west in the Depart- 
ment of Panama. 

"Why will you not stay here and teach us? 
We want to learn English ;" he said. 

"But you have the priests here;" I reminded 
him. 

He said that the priests did no good, and 
yet he bowed to my fellow-passenger and 
kissed his hand. He said that the priests had 
been on the island for several years, but none 
of their children could read or write; they 
only taught them to pray to the saints. 

I told this chief that John Davis wanted me 
to come to Mona, and I asked him about the 
chief on the other island as we lay anchored 
in the bay between the two islands. He said 
that he was his nephew, that his name was 
Charles J. Robinson, and that he was away 
on the mainland working on his plantation, 



84 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

so I did not meet him. The chief with whom 
I talked was Joe Harding. 

The priest who had come up the coast thus 
far with us remained at Harding's Island, but 
he engaged two Indian men to go on with us to 
Mona, giving them rifles from a box of twelve 
which he had with him. The last words 
which he said to them as he rowed away from 
the launch were: "Pelear por mi," "Fight 
for me," and some of the men said: "These 
Indians will kill you;" telling me what they 
had heard him say. I said: "Never mind; I 
trust in God and He will keep me safely." 
The captain swore and said that I was going 
to get him into trouble ; he wished he had not 
brought me. 

We left the bay in the afternoon and ar- 
rived at Mona about five o'clock the same 
day. The Indians of course got a boat and 
were taken to shore before I was, and as soon 
as I could get a man that understood Spanish 
or English — I used either language as the case 
demanded — I inquired for John Davis. One 
of the men pointed him out on the beach and 
rowed me to him. As John could speak good 
English we were soon chatting eagerly. I 



ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 85 

gave him the photograph of his son whidii 
the Methodist minister in Panama had sent 
by me, and he seemed glad to see it and asked 
about him. 

While John Davis and I were talking the 
two Indians who came up on the launch had 
called the people into the chief's house and 
we were summoned to come there too. There 
was a great crowd; it looked as though the 
whole island was there. I was seated by the 
side of the chief, while John Davis, being an 
ex-chief — now second chief — sat at my left. 
The crowd was in front of us, the two messen- 
gers, each with a rifle, at the front looking 
very important and trying to impress me with 
their importance. But I was very busy look- 
ing at the women and babies and refused to 
be properly impressed. There seemed to be 
an endless chain of women and girls, each 
with a baby on her hip. 

When everybody came to order John Davis 
spoke. He told the chief that I had come to 
teach them the Bible and how to read and 
write in English, as they wanted that lan- 
guage. With every few words the chief 
grunted, as did everybody after him, and 



86 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

finally the tension was getting so great that 
I grunted too and felt better! I do not know 
whether the whole story was told, for it seemed 
to me that in the middle of it there was a sud- 
den break, the two men jumping to their feet 
and crying: 'Telear! pelear! pelear!" Every 
one took up the cry, and I felt like doing the 
same, so great was the excitement, only I felt 
that I must watch proceedings, so I sat still, 
as did also the two chiefs. When the con- 
fusion stopped I asked John what it all meant. 

^^Oh, white lady;" he said, "I am sorry, but 
you cannot stay here. The padre has told 
these two men that you are a bad woman and 
we must not let you stay." 

I had no thought of being sent away in this 
peremptory fashion without at least a protest. 
I understood the influence at work and how 
these simple-minded people had been influ- 
enced against me, but I would not go without 
a plea for them to hear me, so I asked John 
Davis if he could not quiet the people so that 
they would listen to what he had to say about 
me. The Indians were gathered in clusters 
and were all talking at once, here, there, and 
yonder. It was very interesting and exciting. 



ADVENTURES IN A LAUNCH 87 

The women were talking too, of course, though 
what their attitude was I did not find out 
until later. 

While waiting for the decision I was rest- 
ful regarding the whole matter and prayed 
to God to overrule. Finally John said : "You 
had better go! These two men will kill you 
if you do not." 

He had hardly spoken the words when one 
of the willing-to-be murderers caught me by 
the wrist and pulled me from my seat and 
pushed me forward. Then I found out with- 
out any questioning what the women's atti- 
tude toward me was. They screamed when 
I passed them, pulled the children out of my 
way as if I would contaminate them, spit at 
me and made faces. I could not help think- 
ing of the way many so-called Christians treat 
a woman of the street, shrinking from even 
the touch of her clothing. These Indian 
women are made up of the same sinful tend- 
encies and can show them when they are 
under provocation. They were not going to 
be contaminated by the touch of such a one 
as I! 

In the midst of all this turmoil, instead of 



88 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

having fear I was very conscious of the pres- 
ence of God, and said to myself: ^'This must 
be one of the ^all things' that I can bear 
through Jesus' help. I did not understand, 
but I could trust God and I did. 

As the man who was leading me put me into 
the canoe he was so excited that he tipped it 
in such a way that it filled half full of water, 
so there I sat up to my shoe-tops in water. 
As there was no accommodation on the launch 
except to sit in one place day and night, I 
could do nothing but sit still and let my cloth- 
ing dry as it could. But there are worse 
things than that, and I did not catch cold or 
have the fever, as some of the crew said I 
would. The captain frankly said he hoped I 
would die from the exposure ; but the sinner's 
hopes are vain. My hope was in God, and 
He did not fail me. 



CHAPTER VII 

BACK TO COLON 

THE launch which had brought me thus 
far had to go up the coast three days' 
journey, and as there was no other boat by 
which I could return to Colon I had to go on 
also. When I went aboard at Nombre-de- 
Dios I had carried only a little luncheon in 
my bag, for I expected to be at my destination 
in a few hours, but it took the better part of 
two days. The second day I had asked for 
some of the rice and freshly caught fish that 
the crew were cooking only a few feet from 
me, but they would neither give nor sell any 
of the food, so I was hungry yet not suffering. 
I had part of what my Father had promised 
me to keep up my strength, namely, water, 
so I drank that and thanked Him, feeling sure 
that the bread would come later, because God 
has said: *^His bread shall be given him; his 
waters shall be sure." Not having had the 

89 



90 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

privilege of unloading any of my boxes from 
the launch when we stopped at Mono ; and the 
chief and John Davis not having had time to 
entertain me even if they had felt so disposed, 
I had no food that day or that night. But 
^'He giveth unto His beloved sleep," so I had 
that rest and refreshment. We went on all 
the next day, coming to a large island toward 
evening, and I had nothing to eat that day 
either. 

As the launch stopped in the bay I spoke 
to some of the Indians and found a few who 
could understand English a little. I told 
them that I would like to see the chief, but 
they said it was too near sundown; that no 
foreigner was allowed on shore when the sun 
set. I promised that I would come back as 
quickly as possible, so they took me to the 
chief's house. He received me very gra- 
ciously, bowing low, and I bowed slightly 
and was made to take a seat of honor at his 
right. By means of several of the chief's men, 
some of whom understood a little English 
and some a little Spanish, I made them under- 
stand that I wanted to come and start a school 
among them. They talked together volubly 



BACK TO COLON 91 

for a time and finally told me that they did 
not want a school. They were Indians, and 
no Indians learned to read or write; it was 
not good. Then with a very gracious bow 
from the chief I knew that I was dismissed, 
and I turned to go to the launch, being es- 
corted by a curious crowd. The women cen- 
tered their attention on my clothes, with an 
interest quite similar, only differently ex- 
pressed, to that of women of more enlightened 
countries when something new comes before 
them. They felt the texture of my garments, 
and touched my hat and my hair and my shoes 
in such a way that I exclaimed: "Oh, vain 
woman, everywhere the samel Color does 
not change the natural curiosity and vanity." 
The men on the launch had somehow man- 
aged to get some rum. I knew that the water 
tank was empty, and I asked one of the black 
men to have it filled. He turned to another 
man more intoxicated than himself, who said 
in a maudlin way: "We drink rum; we don't 
drink water." I said nothing, but tried an- 
other man, who finally put in about a pailful. 
That was far better than none and I thanked 
the Lord for it. I asked the captain to let 



92 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

me get a box that had food in it from the hold, 
but he refused to open it up, saying I could 
^^go to " 

"Oh, no, thank you ;" I replied ; "I am going 
to heaven." 

The brains of the crew were so befuddled 
with drink that instead of anchoring for the 
night they determined to sail out by moon- 
rise. They said that through me they had 
lost so much time that they must now make 
it up! We had not sailed more than half an 
hour before the boat ran into a sand-bank; 
and I praised the Lord, for I felt that it was 
a deliverance from something worse, as the 
crew were all so intoxicated. 

We lay quite still that night, and the next 
morning many Indians came with ropes in 
their canoes to help pull the launch off of the 
bank. But in order to get the boat off they 
had to lighten it by opening the hold and tak- 
ing out the things, and in this way I was able 
to secure one of my boxes that had food in it! 
I slid it under the seat and covered it with my 
dress. When we were off the bank and they 
were refilling the hold, I opened up my box 
and had a good meal of condensed milk and 



BACK TO COLON 93 

soda crackers. They tasted delicious, and I 
found that I was certainly hungry. But the 
dear Lord had kept me from the gnawings 
that hunger brings. I had cocoa also in the 
box, and I asked the cook to let me have some 
boiling water, but he refused me. I did not 
mind very much ; I was getting used to being 
refused. 

We went on our journey quickly that day, 
arriving at Port-o-Baldia before sunset, and 
on the following morning leaving there on 
our return trip. Four passengers for Colon 
were taken on, two being policemen and one 
a prisoner. Their provisions ran short and 
they eyed my box of soda crackers and wanted 
to buy. But I was glad to heap coals of fire 
on their heads, and it was a real delight to see 
the change that came over many of them when 
I shared the crackers and gave with them a 
message of love for Jesus' sake. 

When we arrived at Rio Diablo the padre 
who had sent the two Indians up the coast 
with me came aboard the launch ; he was go- 
ing to Colon. We only stayed in the bay a 
little while, and I sat in the boat and looked 
at the two houses built by the padres and the 



94 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

Indians, little dreaming that in both of them 
there would some day be Bible schools and 
that I would write this story in the room in 
one of the houses which the padre used for his 
bedroom. It never entered my thoughts that 
the houses built by the enemies of the truth 
would one day be under my control and be 
used for spreading God's truth ; but we walk 
by faith, not seeing the path ahead but trust- 
ing all to our Heavenly Father. I did have 
faith that I should come back there again, 
but God in bringing me back has done the 
"exceeding abundantly" above all that I asked 
or thought. 

We had not sailed more than three hours, 
cramped up in the launch so closely that our 
knees touched, when the padre spoke to me. 
I had been sitting all this time with my Bible 
in English and Spanish open on my lap, and 
the priest could not help seeing it and reading 
it if he cared to. 

"Do you speak Spanish?" he asked, and I 
replied courteously: "Yes, sir," not of course 
using the title "father." 

Then he opened the battery of his abuse. 
He said that I was no good; that I had no 



BACK TO COLON 95 

faith, no religion ; ttiat I did not eat the body 
of the Lord Jesus, so I had no life. He said 
that I had no business to come up to the In- 
dians ; that he and his associates had come to 
give them the true religion and that I must 
not interfere. He was so excited, so angry 
evidently to find me alive after my trip up 
the coast, that he went over and over his state- 
ments and denunciations, not knowing how to 
stop. 

Finally I asked the priest if he had fin- 
ished; that if he had I had something to say; 
and then I lifted up my heart to God in prayer 
to help me to speak wisely, to wield the Sword 
of the Spirit so that my listener might feel 
its power. Holding the Book out toward him, 
I said: "Sir, I come to these Indians to teach 
them to read God's Word, whose entrance 
bringeth light." As I held it out I gripped 
it tightly, fearing that he would lift his hand 
to throw it into the water. He did throw out 
his hand toward it, exclaiming scornfully, 
"El Protestante!" 

"Yes;" I said, "this Book does protest! It 
protests against many of the doctrines of your 
Church. It forbids the making and worship- 



96 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

ing of graven images. You lift up the Vir- 
gin, the Pope, scapulars, rosaries, holy water 
and a wafer god. We preach Jesus Christ, 
the Saviour of the whole world. Jesus him- 
self said: ^I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto Myself.' He did not 
say that His Mother would do this, or Saint 
Peter or Saint John. They are dead, but 
Jesus is alive forevermore. His blood 
cleanseth from all sin. He says: ^I am the 
way and the truth and the life : no one cometh 
unto the Father but by Me.' 

"Now, sir, if you would read God's Word 
and obey it you would have this life in you. 
You say that I do not eat the body of Jesus. 
It is true that I do not put a wafer in my 
mouth, nor let any man deceive me by doing 
it, and then call that a god. It may be your 
god, but my God is in heaven, and by faith 
in the atoning blood of Jesus shed on the cross 
for me I have the life of God now in my soul. 
And this news is too good to keep to myself; 
I have for years been telling to Englishmen, 
Spaniards and Indians that Jesus only can 
save. No Church, no creed, no ceremony, 
no saint, no water, no wafer, can do it; it is 



BACK TO COLON 97 

Jesus only. I came to these Indians to tell 
them this, and you have done your best to 
prevent me. But, sir, mark my words, be- 
cause I believe God I shall be back here again, 
with this Book, to teach this people. I shall 
be in and you will be out!'' Truly this was 
a prophetic utterance, for it has been fulfilled 
to the letter,' with more added. Now I am 
in and he is out. 

The padre squirmed and twisted, but there 
was no chance to get away. He did stand up 
as if to pass me, and I would have had to move 
sideways in order to let him, but I did not; I 
stood up too, and with the Word of God open 
in my hand I quoted passage after passage. 
I felt a special unction in my soul; this was 
my hour to glorify God, to lift up Jesus to this 
man; he had a chance to receive the light if 
he would. He tried to get by me to go to 
the hold, but I kept on quoting Scripture to 
him, and when he did sidle by me and peer 
down into the dark hole as if very anxious 
about his luggage, I followed and talked 
earnestly. My soul seemed to be on fire for 
God, and I gave him a clear, straight exhor- 
tation; he could not get away from it. I 



98 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

heard that he afterward returned to Spain 
and died there. God's word does not return 
to Him void, so that the seed sown on that 
launch may have borne fruit to his saving; 
I do not know. 

I told the padre that I should report his 
treatment of me to the President of Panama, 
and I did when I reached the city, and had 
his sympathy. I did not go to him for sym- 
pathy, however, but to get a letter as an offi- 
cial passport which would let me go into any 
part of the Republic in safety. The Presi- 
dent — who is now dead — said that the padre 
did not do right in threatening me and send- 
ing the men to thwart my plans, and that he 
would be glad to give me a letter of com- 
mendation, but that I needed no passport; the 
Republic was free. 

"I know that," I replied, "but some other 
people do not seem to know the rights and 
privileges that belong to a free republic, and 
I want a letter to teach them." 

He smiled and said: "Brave little woman! 
But why do you want to go among the In- 
dians? They are very treacherous; I would 
not go up there for anything." 



BACK TO COLON 99 

"I want to go and tell them of Jesus who 
died for them," I answered; and though I 
had told him the whole story of my desire to 
teach the Indians, he seemed so interested that 
it had to be re-told. Then I preached 
Jesus to him and told him how God's Word 
is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. 
"We all need it. You need it as President in 
guiding the affairs of this Republic. God 
wants to save you ; if you read His Word and 
obey it He will save you now." 

He seemed interested, and I just praised 
God for this privilege of being brought be- 
fore rulers for the truth's sake. He told me 
that if a certain official would write such a 
letter as I wanted he would sign it, and I was 
ushered into the presence of one of Rome's 
emissaries, I felt sure. The President sent 
one of his servants to tell this important per- 
son my errand, so I was invited to tell him 
the whole story. 

"Do you not know," he said as I finished, 
"that the education of Panama is under the 
Roman Catholic Bishop?" 

"Oh, then I see!" This was an explanation 
in a few words of a power I had to combat. 



100 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

"Yes, and if you want a letter you must go 
to him." 

"Indeed! Then Rome has its foot on the 
neck of the Panama Republic so that it is not 
free after all!" 

"Religiously, no. The religion of Panama 
is Roman Catholic." 

"Then do you think the Bishop would give 
me a letter?" 

"No." 

"Then why do you send me to a man who 
you know will refuse my request when it is 
in your power to grant it, and the President 
said that he would indorse the letter if you 
wrote it?" 

I felt that it was a plan on the part of both 
to put me off, but it gave me an opportunity 
to speak to them about Jesus and to magnify 
the Word of God. 

"We will neither help you nor hinder you 
officially," was his answer. "If you want to 
go to the Indians you must fight your way 
through." 

"Thank you, sir, I will," I replied; "but I 
won't carry rifles or pistols, but the Sword 
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." 




Chief Robinson's House. Open door leada to store. Tne Ameri- 
can as well as the Panama flag forms part of the decorations. 




The "San Bias" — the Panama government steamer which plys up 
and down the north coast. 



BACK TO COLON loi 

I left feeling encouraged in God, rejoicing 
that I had unloaded another cargo of heavenly 
ammunition for Him. 

When I went to the home of the Methodist 
minister who had given me the directions for 
my journey he was surprised to see me. He 
supposed that I was all settled down in my 
new home, and was planning to send Philip 
back, as he and his family expected to return 
to the States in a few months. I told him 
that I had learned some very valuable lessons 
that I was going to use as stepping-stones to 
greater victories for God. He did not think 
it would be wise or worth while to try to go 
back while that priest was there to influence 
the Indians, but I assured him that the priest 
was going to be put out and I was going to 
have the privilege of going in; I felt that God 
was going to do it. 

After laboring for a few months with the 
Christian Mission (colored) on the Isthmus, 
I received an invitation to go to a party of 
missionaries in Mexico, so I waited on the 
Lord for the money for the journey if He 
wanted me to go. I did not give up hopes of 
returning to San Bias, but the way surely was 



I02 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

not open at present, so I started for Mexico 
in August, 191 1 ; labored there four months, 
and then went on to California, where I stayed 
two months with friends in Los Angeles, in 
all my travels never once mentioning money 
to any one; my Father supplied every need. 

While in the home of two young mission- 
aries who were under a Board I learned many 
valuable lessons, and I had to say to them: 
"Truly the way of faith is the best." Many 
times when things ran short they had to hope 
that the Board would send their money on 
time so that they would not be too much in- 
convenienced. They wondered how I got 
along, not being under a Board. "Oh," I 
said, "I am not under; I am on top, for 'un- 
derneath are the Everlasting Arms.' " 

In January, 1912, I sailed to San Francisco, 
God providing the means in the same way 
that he had done for years, "according to 
your faith." Faith is not air; I did not walk 
on air, but on the promises of God, and I have 
not yet walked to the end of any one of them. 

I visited friends and cousins in different 
States, speaking in many churches and mis- 
sions of God's love and leading, and requesting 



BACK TO COLON 103 

prayers of faith for the entrance into the San 
Bias territory on my return to the Isthmus. 
I believed that God wanted me there and that 
He would in His own good time open the way. 



CHAPTER VIII 

AT RIO DIABLO 

1 STAYED ten months in the States, visit- 
ing Canada by way of the wonderful Ni- 
agara Falls, which I had longed to see from 
my childhood days. Father had planned to 
take mother and me to see them, but his plans 
failed. But my Heavenly Father often gives 
me the desires of my heart, even as He has 
promised to do to all of His children if they 
delight in Him. All through my trip I met 
God's chosen ones, had my faith strengthened 
by their faith ; and the change of air, scenery 
and food all helped to build me up, so that I 
started out again with renewed vigor. 

Again I sailed by the West Indian passage, 
stopping off at several of the islands, telling 
how God had led me and asking all the rich 
in faith to pray, reminding them of Jesus' 
words: "All things whatsoever ye pray and 

104 



AT RIO DIABLO 105 

ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
shall have them," Mark 11:24. 

Sailing for the Isthmus, I landed in Colon 
August 24th, 19 1 2, having been away just two 
years, during all of which time I had not 
ceased to believe that a door would be opened 
to the Indians. Remembering the two islands 
at the mouth of Rio Diablo, where I had 
stopped when I went by launch to Mona, and 
the wish of Joe Harding, the chief of the 
smaller island, to have me stay there and 
teach, I decided, if it were possible, to meet 
Charles J. Robinson, Harding's nephew, who 
was chief of the other island. Knowing that 
the Indians came to Colon with their boat- 
loads of cocoanuts, I went to the wharf where 
they landed, hoping to see him among them. 
I asked every Indian that I saw about Chief 
Robinson, but many understood neither Eng- 
lish nor Spanish, and for some time I made 
no headway. But, searching in this way, I 
made the acquaintance of an Indian w^ho had 
married a light-colored negro and they lived 
in Colon. He could speak English well, and 
he said he would let me know if he heard that 
the chief was coming to the city. 



io6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 



While I was waiting for news I gathered 
in my room a class of young lads who wanted 
to learn English, one of whom could speak it 
very well and acted as interpreter; his home 
was only six miles from Chief Robinson's 
island, and he was watching for the chief. I 
talked of Jesus, and the young man said, 
"The Indians have their own religion; they 
do not want to learn about yours ; they only 
want you to teach them to read and speak 
English so that they can make plenty of money 
like the Americans." 

"Is that so indeed?" I replied. "Well, if 
they will listen to me and learn about Jesus, 
some day they will walk on golden streets 
and have more than any Americans can give 
them." I talked earnestly to the lads every 
time they came ; that was my business for my 
King. 

In January, 1913, I was told that Chief 
Robinson would be in on the 17th, so in the 
morning I was down at the wharf, and I saw 
him and two other men just going across to 
the Government Building to get a pass on the 
railroad to visit Panama City. My heart 
beat fast for joy; this was my hour! Going 



AT RIO DIABLO 107 

up to the leader, for they walked single file, 
I asked if he were Chief Robinson of Rio 
Diablo. 

"Yes, I am." 

"Do you want a teacher to come to your 
island and teach your people the Bible and 
English?" I asked. 

"Yes, I do. When can you come?" was the 
prompt reply. 

That was business and rejoiced my heart, 
and I answered : "Now." He smiled and said 
that would be all right. 

"I will go back with you if you say so," 
I suggested, anxious to seize the opportunity. 

"You could not very well, for my canoe 
will be so loaded," he answered. "You had 
better come on one of the large schooners." 

I said that would be quite satisfactory to 
me, and we talked together for a few minutes. 
He said that he been taken by the captain of 
one of the trading vessels when he was nine 
years old to a place called Old Providence, 
near Jamaica. The captain's name was Rob- 
inson, so he named the boy Charles Julius 
Robinson. He sent him to school for three 
years, so that he learned to read, write and 



io8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

speak English, and at the age of twelve he 
went to sea, traveling on the schooners to New 
York, Nova Scotia and other places. When 
about twenty-five he returned to his home, 
was married, settled down, and was soon 
afterward appointed second chief, then chief 
at the death of the old chief, Henry Clay. 

During the reign of Chief Clay the Roman 
Catholic priest came and somehow got in. 
Many were against him, but Chief Robinson 
was one who was in favor of having him stay 
because he wanted his children to be educated. 
The people helped him to build the very 
house that I now occupy, the priest supplying 
the galvanized iron for the roof and sides and 
the Indians cutting down trees and hauling 
most of the wood, each helping a little in gifts 
and in free labor. 

"We are sorry that we ever let the priest in, 
however," said the chief. "Our children 
have not learned anything but to chant to 
images, saints and the Virgin. I was taught 
to read the Bible and I want my children to 
learn to read it. I am glad that you will 
come." 

We parted then and I went to my room to 



AT RIO DIABLO 109 

begin packing, my heart singing for joy. One 
morning a week later I was awakened early 
by a knock, and on opening the door I saw 
three Indians, one of whom pushed an en- 
velope into my hand. I opened it and read : 

San Jose Nargana, Feb. 2nd, 19 13. 
Dear lady I sent my 3 Indians to Bring you up 
to San Bias Coas to my country My people like 
to see you Dear lady if you can By A B C Book 
Engles and Bring your Piano up with you no 
more for Present. Mr. Charles J. Robinson. 

How much that letter meant to me! and 
here were the three living red Indians waiting 
for me to speak the word! Had not our God 
answered prayer? 

I hastily strapped and roped things with the 
aid of the Indians, then to the canoe we went. 
It was the largest canoe the chief had, but 
was very small for us to weather heavy seas 
in, and I had heard much about the roughness 
of the sea at this season. But I believed that 
God would overrule the sea and everything 
else. However, my friend in Colon came 
down to the wharf just as we started out and 
called to the men not to take me, the wind 



no ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

was so changeable. So we put back to shore 
and the men put off one of my trunks, a deck 
chair and a box of canned foods, then they 
went on. I waited two weeks and then se- 
cured passage on the two-masted schooner the 
^'Agnes E." 

We were nine days getting from Colon to 
the first group of the San Bias Islands, and as 
the captain had business to attend to of course 
I had to wait until it was finished. But I was 
quite comfortable and simply felt that I could 
rest for a little. We were now about fifteen 
miles from Rio Diablo. During the day the 
Indians came aboard, and I opened my "pi- 
ano" — the folding baby organ — and played. 
The captain and crew who could speak Eng- 
lish sang the Moody and Sankey hymns and 
we spent a pleasant time. But the news 
spread that a white woman was on board who 
was going to Chief Robinson's island, and 
early on the morning of the tenth day put we 
were awakened by the splash of oars and a 
voice calling: **Ai es the Missi ar?" 

"Yes," I answered in Spanish; "I am here," 
for I was quite sure that I was the Missi who 
was meant. One of the men could speak Eng- 



AT RIO DIABLO iii 

lish (I have since found that he was one of the 
two who dragged me off from Mona Island) , 
and he said, ^'Chief Robinson sent us for you; 
come now," so I just stepped off of the 
schooner into the canoe and we were off like 
a shot. A few hours' sailing and we landed 
safely at home ! 

Of course the whole village was out, and I 
was graciously received by the chief and his 
brother Alfred, who also could speak Eng- 
lish. I sat in the store, for, by the way. Chief 
Robinson had and still has quite a grocery and 
dry-goods store, and for two hours was, I 
might say, on exhibition. The chief had an 
old iron stove in which he burned logs when 
he wanted to cook after the white man's style, 
and here my dinner was prepared, or rather 
my breakfast, for although it was now after- 
noon I had not eaten. But then I must suffer 
some inconveniences, even as these people were 
doing to have me there in their home. After 
a meal of something fried in grease and soup 
of some kind, and some eggs fried till they 
resembled sole leather, and some kind of 
black liquid to drink, all of which I took, 
"asking no questions for conscience' sake," I 



112 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

felt better able to walk, as I was expected to 
do after that feast, to see the sights of the 
town. Then I was taken to my new home, a 
native house with palm-leaf roof and bamboo 
walls. The chief had said to me, "We have 
no house for you to live in," and I had an- 
swered, "Oh, the same kind of house that the 
natives live in will do for me." 

So this was my home! One corner was ar- 
ranged for my sleeping room, and there the 
Indians hung my hammock. They cooked 
for me until the schooner came up four days 
after bringing my household effects. 

I arrived on the island on Friday, Febru- 
ary 28th, and started school the next morning. 
Before sunrise I was awakened by voices call- 
ing my name. Here were my scholars ready 
for school ! so we began at once and continued 
for eight hours ; then the chief said that they 
wanted night school, so for another four hours 
we recited and sang A, B, C, and went through 
all kinds of exercises, until I dreamed of hands 
and feet and faces all mixed up with letters 
and red Indians. 

The next day being Sunday, I taught them 
John 3: 16. That, and: "Onward, Christian 



AT RIO DIABLO 113 

Soldiers," was the order of exercises that first 
Sunday in San Bias. We marched and coun- 
termarched around the schoolroom; the 
earthen floor was humpy, but it did not mat- 
ter! My school was composed of all ages. 
There were tottering old men ; Olibebeah, the 
chief's grandfather, was said to be over a hun- 
dred; and wrinkled grandmothers, and mid- 
dle aged and young married women also, each 
with a child straddled on her hip. Logs 
were brought in, and they sat on these when 
they were not marching; but I kept them 
pretty lively, and they were equal to the oc- 
casion. Shirtless boys came in to march; we 
had great times in those early days! A par- 
rot came every day and learned to sing, "On- 
ward, Christian Soldiers." After he had 
sung he would laugh at his own smartness, 
and of course we laughed too. I used him to 
spur the boys on by saying, "Dear me, the par- 
rot has beaten all of you!" 

The chief came to the school every day 
to tell the scholars what I wanted them to do, 
and I learned a few Indian words so that I 
could make them understand some things, 
and so for three months we had school three 



114 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

times a day seven days in the week. On Sun- 
day night it was different. Then I had the 
chief interpret the stories in the Gospels of 
Jesus and His love, and the people learned 
many hymns. The organ was a great attrac- 
tion. I only played it on Sunday nights, 
partly to help make the service interesting, 
and partly because when I was teaching there 
was no room to move my arms, the space was 
so limited. 

During the first three months of my stay 
the house which the priests had formerly used 
was occupied by a man whom they call a 
Christian Brother, not a priest, but a mem- 
ber of one of their orders who teaches. He 
had a few boys every day, but as my school 
grew in popularity his twelve boys left and 
came to me, and before long the Brother left 
the island. 

In June I went down to Colon on a new 
gasoline launch that had just begun to run up 
this coast. The captain very kindly offered 
to take me down and bring me back in ten 
days, and this was too good an offer to be re- 
fused. The chief asked me to take his eldest 
boy, Charles, who was about seven years old, 



AT RIO DIABLO 115 

with me, that he might see the city and hear 
English spoken all the time. I bought many 
things for school use and also a new three- 
burner oil-stove with an oven. 

This oil-stove created a sensation on the 
island. Again and again I had to demon- 
strate the lighting of that wonderful fire-box. 
Chiefs and their body-guards came from far 
and near to see the stove — and the lady who 
owned it, perhaps! — to hear the children sing 
in English, and to listen to the organ. If I 
had had a moving picture machine I certainly 
could have gotten some interesting scenes. 

In a couple of weeks the chief had sent for 
an oil-stove just like mine. He told me that 
all the women said the evil was in it. They 
were afraid of it and preferred to sit on one 
end of a log while the other end cooked the 
fish, regardless of the smoke and dirt. All 
my dishes, forks especially, were carefully ex- 
amined ; they wondered what a fork could be 
for. When I was cooking they would come 
in and smell around the pan, and if it was so 
that they could dip a finger into the concoc- 
tion they would do so, and in every case they 
were disgusted with the white woman's food. 



ii6 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

Two months after the Roman Catholic 
teacher had left, as the house was standing 
empty, the chief said that they would pull it 
down. I went in to look it over. It was a 
large building about twenty-five feet by 
thirty. There were three rooms downstairs 
and five rooms above. The largest room 
downstairs had been used for religious serv- 
ices only; its walls were hung with pictures 
of saints and the Virgin, and there were 
wooden statues. The confessional box was 
there, which I have found very useful as a 
library, and the baptismal font. 

About this time a Panamanian official came 
up to see my school, and was so well pleased 
with it that he advised me to leave the grass 
hut and go into the large house. I told him 
that the priests had built it and I wanted no 
trouble with them by occupying their prop- 
erty. He said that it would be all right; that 
they would not return, and that it would be 
better for me to go into it at once, adding: 
*'This house is no fit place for a woman." I 
told him that I was very happy and felt that 
God who led me here was keeping watch over 



/ ^ RIO DIABLO 117 

me continually, and to have His approval sat- 
isfied me ; that I was never lonely or afraid. 

When the rainy season was on, which lasts 
from May to the first week in November, 
there certainly was much to be desired in the 
way of comfort in my grass house. Often my 
floor was in such pools that I had to wear my 
rubbers all day, but I hoped for better things 
when the dry season came, and endured the 
discomfort. But one morning in August 
when my floor seemed nothing but one great 
puddle, I decided that perhaps it would be 
wiser for me to move into the house. The 
Indians had not torn it down, so I told the 
chief that I wanted them to open it up, clean 
it and make it ready for me. They went to 
work at once, and the next day, Saturday, I 
was moving into my upstairs tenement. 
Wasn't it fine! I had doors that I could 
shut and thus have a little privacy; I had a 
good board floor to walk on upstairs and a 
smooth cement one downstairs. There were 
three long desks that would seat six at a pinch, 
and the men made me three more; so with 
six benches our room was soon looking like a 



ii8 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

real schoolroom. I took down the pictures 
of the saints and other paraphernalia of my 
predecessors and put up pictures of flowers, 
birds and animals that I cut from the maga- 
zines and pasted on white paper, and we all 
felt proud of our new quarters. 

I kept one of the images to use as an object 
lesson, and when the boys recited the 115th 
Psalm I touched each part of the image as 
they recited: "They have mouths, but they 
speak not; eyes have they, but they see not," 
etc., and questioned them about it. When 
we had finished I laid the image down and 
stepped on it, asking: '^Can it feel, can it help 
us, can it hurt me, can it get up?" One of 
the boys, who was very bright and could speak 
Spanish well, and had lived with the priests 
as their errand boy, said: "Miss Coope, I knelt 
before that wooden man sometimes two hours 
at a time, and kissed it, and always bowed my 
knee when I passed it. But I see now that 
it cannot help us. I will never worship an 
image again." 

I can only pray that Joe may be kept in the 
knowledge of God and that the word may 
prove a savior of life unto life in his case. 



AT RIO DIABLO 119 

He was the son of the chief of Mona Island 
from which I had been ejected, and had been 
sent to school on this island, living with Chief 
Robinson. But even before the Catholic 
Brother left he had come to my school, and 
for a year he was with me, professing to ac- 
cept Jesus as his Saviour. He learned to 
speak Spanish well, and when the Spanish 
official who told me to go into the big house 
saw him he took a great fancy to him and 
took him to Panama City, where he is putting 
him through school. 



CHAPTER IX 

HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 

ONE of the great hindrances to the recep- 
tion of Christ and the uplift of the In- 
dians on the island was, as it is everywhere, 
liquor. There were ten rum-shops for a pop- 
ulation of 800. They had bottles of Balboa 
beer on their shelves, and they built a special 
cubby-hole of wood with a thatched roof 
which was set apart as a shop, and this was 
owned by the chief, or, as he said, by his 
brother. The traders brought up demijohns 
of rum, so they all sold this, the "Chriss- 
tians' " liquor — the captains and sailors all 
called themselves ^^Chriss-tians" when talking 
to the Indians — and they had their own home- 
made rum ; so liquor was plentiful, and every 
week during the first year that I was there 
they had what is called a "chee-chee," which 
really is a drunken spree over a girl's coming 
to maturity. It was the woman's day. The 

120 



HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 121 

girl was bathed three times a day for four 
days by the women, and during that time the 
father was in the woods shooting game of any 
kind and up the river catching fish, and the 
mother was cooking on a large scale and mak- 
ing the rum, which was put into large earthen 
jars. 

When all was ready they fired a gun to 
notify all to come, for the feast was to begin. 
The girl passed around to the guests portions 
of meat, fish, vegetables and other things, and 
they in turn presented her with rings, beads, 
and cloth. Then they drank and sang. They 
have a special song, and if the singer does not 
finish it in two days the feast must go on, and 
of course he does not finish until he sees that 
there is no more rum. Sometimes the feast 
has gone on for five days, and I cannot de- 
scribe the howling and yelling; it is hell let 
loose! All the men are drunk, and all the 
women, especially those of the girl's family, 
screaming night and day. The men walk the 
streets with bottles under their arms, asking 
every one they meet to drink with them. The 
"babblings, the wounds without a cause," the 
bloodshed were terrible ! One morning when 



122 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

I went to the door of my grass hut there were 
great spots of blood before the door. The 
boys said: ''Men fight— drunk !" The chief 
came by and told me not to come out; it would 
not be safe. He was sober, and sober in more 
ways than one. He was acting as policeman, 
for all his four policemen were drunk. There 
was a big fight on, and he had tied them all 
to a post and was walking around my house to 
guard me. 

After that terrible spree was over — it lasted 
from one Sunday morning till the following 
Sunday — the chief came to me and said : "This 
is too much!" He felt ashamed to have me, 
the first foreign woman that had ever lived 
on their island, see how beastly they were. 
When I had talked to him of Jesus as a per- 
sonal Saviour, he would say, ''I am not a sin- 
ner; I believe in Jesus; I am all right," and 
yet he kept a rum-shop and allowed their 
sprees to go on. 

But matters had reached a climax now. 
When the people had sobered up he called a 
meeting and told them that this thing must 
stop. Many were up in arms against him. 
They said it was their custom and they could 



HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 123 



.:i5> 



not and would not stop; the *'white devil' 
must leave ; it v^as she who had put the chief 
up to this move; he had never stopped them 
before she came. 

As a result of the chief's stand the women 
refused to come to school; not a girl came for 
several weeks. But the boys all rallied 
around the chief and said: ^'Miss Coope is 
good; she not drink rum and fight; we 
ashamed of our mothers." I told the chief 
that he ought to accept Jesus as his Saviour 
if he wanted to help his people; that Jesus 
would guide him by his Holy Spirit in this 
fight for the right; that his idea was to stop 
these drunken bouts, but he kept his own rum- 
shop and so how was he better than his peo- 
ple? When I spoke of that he said that the 
cubby-hole was his brother's. 

"But you sit there and drink and smoke 
with the rest," I said ; "so they think if drink- 
ing is right for you it is right for them. You 
can't tell them to stop drinking rum while 
you go on drinking, selling and encouraging 
your brother to take their cocoanuts for your 
liquor." 

Chief Robinson talked with his brother, 



124 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

who was so vexed that he took his wife and 
daughter and left the island for a long visit 
to his wife's brother on another island. In 
the meantime the chief tore down the cubby- 
hole and gave orders that all others should do 
the same. If they wanted to drink they must 
go somewhere else to do it; he wouldn't allow 
it here. So when a girl was to have her 
"coming-out" feast, as we may term it, for 
she is then brought before the public as of 
marriageable age, they took her to another 
island for the festivities. For a few months 
after, if they could only afford one or two 
days' feasting, they would beg the chief to let 
them have "a little drunk" ; they would be so 
good if he would let them have just a little 
one! and he did, so that for a year and a half 
or more we had the "chee-chees" at intervals, 
but never so bad as that one terrible one and 
the others previous to it. 

The other island, which was so near to us 
that we could halloo to each other, still kept 
up the feasts, and many from our side went 
over there. The chief, Joe Harding, of 
whom I have spoken, was an old man. He 
said that his nephew, Chief Robinson, was do- 



HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 125 

ing wrong; that all the Indians got drunk at 
such times, and God made the rum; the cap- 
tains, the Chriss-tian captains, had told him 
so; and if the men wanted to drink he'd let 
them. I used to go and visit him and talk to 
him of Christ. He was ill all the time ; had 
one foot in the grave. He wanted me to come 
and live on his island ; then, he said, his peo- 
ple would be good like Charley's. 

'^I can't very well teach two schools at 
once," I told him ; ^'but as you and your peo- 
ple visit us and I visit you and tell you just 
what I tell my people, why won't you ask 
God to forgive your sins, make your heart 
good, and teach your people by His Holy 
Spirit?" 

"I do," he answered. 

When I had been teaching a little over a 
year a lady came out to me from my own 
church in Providence, R. I. I had often 
written letters to our church, and she had 
heard one; her heart was touched by God's 
voice, and she came. I told the chief on the 
other island that this lady would come over 
to his side and teach, but he shook his head, 
saying that the priest was coming back and 



126 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

he couldn't let her come; he would let me 
come, but nobody else. My chief said that 
his uncle was *^a terrible liar." 

Finally, about five months after my friend 
came, a priest did visit our island; he spoke 
to me in Spanish. He smelled so of beer that 
the boys held their noses. I said: "Do you 
want that man to teach you?" and the answer 
in chorus was: "No, no!" Whether he was 
one of the many who had visited these islands 
before, I do not know. He went into what 
was once their chapel, but it was greatly 
changed in appearance; "the gods had come 
down." He asked if I taught school, and 
when I said: "Yes, sir," he looked at me 
blackly and went hastily out, leaving the 
fumes of his beer and cigarettes behind him. 
He went over to the other island where he 
would jSnd "no Protestants," and looked into 
the empty building with its walls covered 
with pictures and images. It was the hiding- 
place of bats, lizards and all kinds of creep- 
ers. The chief was flattered by the bottle 
fumes and the cigarette, and soon spread the 
news which was received with expressions of 
delight, that the "padre" was going to open a 



HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 127 

school. He was a fine man, he said, and he 
was going to give him money. 

When I heard that news I said to my friend : 
*'Let us pray over this matter. I feel that we 
must do something unusual. If we expect 
God to do unusual things we must fall into 
line." After we had poured out our hearts 
before God I rose from my knees with a de- 
termination to conquer. I said: ^'Come, we 
will close our school and go over and talk 
with old Joe and find out if these reports are 
true." 

We went, and found old Joe lying in his 
hammock smoking; the priest had left for 
Port-o-Baldia after staying only a few hours. 
I asked if what I had heard was true, and he 
said yes, the padre had said that he would 
open the school again when he came back. 

"See here, Joe," I said; "you have been ask- 
ing me to come here for over a year. Now 
I have an assistant who would have been here 
five months ago if you had said the word." 

"I want you," was his reply. 

"All right; do you want me now?" 

"Well, wait till the padre comes back; I'll 
talk to him." 



128 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

"Do you want me now!" 

He wavered and I saw my chance. I said: 
"I am coming over to-day to open up the 
house." That night we slept there. 

While I was talking with the chief, two 
young men who had been coming to my night 
school said: "Yes, we want Miss Coope," and 
their word seemed to have a good deal of in- 
fluence with the old man. He called in the 
second chief and they had a smoking consul- 
tation. While that was going on I mar- 
shaled my forces, sending every canoe that 
I could get over to bring the things that we 
needed for the house. 

The next morning early we two started the 
school. I told Chief Robinson that I'd give 
my school a vacation, and many came over to 
the other island to see the starting of another 
Bible school. We held the fort until the 
priest passed back to Colon, chagrined, out- 
witted by a woman. I stayed a week, work- 
ing hard with the children and helped by sev- 
eral of the big boys who had been in my other 
school. The chief was delighted to see all 
his children so enthused, and feeling that the 
crisis was past I returned to my island, while 



HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 129 

the sister remained to carry on the work and 
is there to-day. I went over every week to 
hold gospel services until the old chief died. 
The new chief, who can speak a little Eng- 
lish, is a very different character, truthful, in- 
dustrious and kindly disposed, so that we have 
had no trouble under him. The population 
is about 400; the school registers 50, with an 
average attendance of 40 daily. My school 
registers 107, with an average attendance of 
90 and many of kindergarten age who come 
because big sister comes. The "big" sisters, 
from six to eight years of age, carry the littler 
ones on their hips so much that it is no won- 
der the two-to-five-year olds expect to be car- 
ried back and forth to school, so I have over 
120 at times. The girls were very backward 
for over a year, but have begun to speed up, 
and many are gaining on the boys, who at 
first did very well, but owing to sickness and 
having to work have fallen behind some. 

One day while I was living in the grass hut 
two men walked in. There was nothing un- 
usual in that; I received callers at all times. I 
shook hands with the first one who came to- 
ward me, saying: "New-a-dee?" which is the 



130 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

Indian "How do you do?" As I put out my 
hand to the second one he held it and looked 
me straight in the eye, saying in good English, 
"Don't you know me? I am John Davis." 
So he was, but I did not recognize him. How 
glad I was to see the dear old man! His 
companion was the chief of Mona Island and 
the father of our little Joe, who had been in 
school about two weeks. So here were the 
two chiefs who had wanted me two years and 
a half ago, and had seen me dragged out by 
two men who came from this very island 
where I was now teaching! Both John 
Davis, the ex-chief, and the chief himself had 
a boy in school, and the children of the men 
who dragged me from Mona were in my 
school also. Here we all were together again, 
but under such different circumstances! 
How marvelous are God's ways, truly past 
finding out! 

John had aged greatly; his hair was now 
almost white, and he said he suffered greatly 
from a cough which seemed to tear him to 
pieces, that he had rheumatism, and that he 
was poor. I had a long talk with him, urg- 
ing him to accept Jesus now. He prayed 



HINDRANCES AND PROGRESS 131 

and said that he believed and asked me when 
I could come to his island, but I could not 
give him any promise, as I was so busy right 
here on these two islands. 

Both of the men said that they were sorry 
they had not let me stay on Mona, and asked 
me to write to America for another lady to 
come out to them. Before they finished their 
two days' visit to our chief I did write a let- 
ter to the church at home telling them of 
John's request and his earnestness and asking 
them to pray for him and also that some one 
would be led of God to volunteer for this 
work, walking by faith. The letter stirred 
several in the church, but only one was led 
to step out definitely. She came after months 
of waiting on God to be sure that He wanted 
her; but in the meantime John Davis died, 
and his son Philip came to tell me that he 
would have to go home, for he was the only 
man in the house and would have to go to 
work. I trust I shall meet John Davis in 
glory. The chief of Mona often visited the 
school, was delighted to hear that his boy was 
so smart, and wanted me to send him to the 
United States for further education. 



CHAPTER X 

SOME OF MY BOYS 

ON May 31st, 1914, three of my boys ac- 
cepted Jesus in the Sunday-school. 
One was little Joe Harris, the son of the chief 
of Tupeelee; the second was Lonnie Powers, 
about twelve years old ; and the third Andrew 
Ferguson, who is, I think, about sixteen or 
seventeen. That Sunday as we read in the 
New Testament class of boys of Jesus' com- 
mand: '^Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel to the whole creation," I explained 
what it meant, telling them as simply as I 
could the love story of Jesus; that when we 
believe in Him with all our hearts we want 
to tell some one else ; that it was He who had 
sent me to tell the San Bias Indians about Him 
and His love for them. ^'Now you can read 
it for yourselves. If you will believe, God 
will save you and then send you to others;" 
I said. Little Joe's eyes were full of tears. 

132 



SOME OF MY BOYS 133 

I drew in the net. 'Who of you will take 
Jesus now for your Saviour, to save you from 
sin and fill your heart with His love and the 
Holy Spirit?'' 

^'I will believe in Jesus now!" Joe said, and 
struck his chest with such earnestness that 
we all looked at him. His face was eager, 
his body trembled. 

"Let us all pray now," I said, for every boy 
in the class was deeply moved, and each one 
prayed. 

"Jesus, make me thy child — good now — so 
I preach," was one prayer made brokenly. 
Another prayed: "Good Jesus, I want good 
preach. I love preach good. Amen." A 
third: "I believe you Jesus me for died. 
Make heart good. Amen." One boy said: 
"Jesus, make Indian good heart now, my 
good. Amen." Joe said, "Jesus, I believe 
you died for me. Make me good now; I love 
you. Amen." I led them all in prayer, and 
at its close each one said: "I feel good now." 

Two of these boys have developed wonder- 
fully. Lonnie Powers was always very 
bright in his lessons; he craved knowledge 
and rapidly passed every boy in the school, 



134 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

always crying for more work, more informa- 
tion. He was just as loving and obedient as 
he was bright, and I became convinced, watch- 
ing his progress in spiritual as well as intel- 
lectual things, that God had a work for him 
and wanted him to have a wider training than 
I could give him. My thought was to send 
him to the Academy at Nyack, New York, 
and after much prayer I got the assurance 
that God would have him go. I had often 
written about him to my church people at 
home and now I wrote again telling them how 
I felt about him. I did not know who was 
to be the honored one to pay his expenses 
through school, but I knew that God was 
talking to some one, for a week after I had 
laid the matter before the Lord and was sure 
in my soul that Lonnie was to go, I received 
in my mail, which had been seven weeks on 
the way, a letter from a man, almost a 
stranger, who said that he had had a talk with 
me at Old Orchard Beach, Me., about five 
years before. I had told my experiences 
with the Indians and he had gone to hear me 
speak. *'Now a few days ago," he added, "I 
was led to send this five dollars to you. I 



,«,^"^J 







u 



Boys from the school. Andrew Ferguson is third from the left. 





Beads for the legs. Dame Fashion is as tyraiinical in San Bias as 
in other parts of the world. 



SOME OF MY BOYS 135 

trust it will be helpful." So I saw that God 
had begun to talk money matters to His own 
children. I only sent my order to the Bank 
of Heaven, and my Father cashed it through 
various bankers. This five dollars was the 
earnest of Lonnie's going through school; 
more would come. When I received the 
next mail all that was needed for his passage 
and outfit came, with a letter from Emmanuel 
Church saying that they would support Lon- 
nie in school. 

The next step was to gain the consent of 
the parents and relatives, for Lonnie was 
very eager to go. His mother and grand- 
mother wept for two days before he left home, 
saying that they would not see him any more, 
and it seemed as though Lonnie's way would 
be blocked. He said: "I do want to go, and 
I keep praying that God will let me." Fi- 
nally the father and older brother took the 
reins of government into their own hands and 
prepared Lonnie's clothes — for it is the men 
who are the tailors in the San Bias Country 
— packed the box, or rather threw the things 
in, for they do not know how to fold or press 
their clothes, and finally all was ready and 



136 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

he was to go. I was going to attend the 
Latin-American Conference at Panama City 
from February 10 to 20, 1916, and planned to 
take Lonnie Powers and Andrew Ferguson 
with me and to send Lonnie on to Nyack from 
there. His mother and grandmother wept 
before he left, but finally ended by submitting 
to his father's wish. 

While we were in Panama both of the boys 
were baptized by the elder in the Christian 
Mission, and their testimony in that Mission 
Hall aroused many of the young people, who 
had heard the gospel all their lives and had 
not accepted Christ, to do so then. I arranged 
for Lonnie to sail on the steamer Colon leav- 
ing the dock at Christobal on Thursday, Feb- 
ruary 24th, 19 16, and he was to arrive in New 
York on March i, exactly three years since 
I had started my school. He was one of the 
first fruits of my work going to the United 
States to be trained for a missionary to his 
own San Bias Indians. 

Andrew Ferguson, the other boy, has been 
used of God since his return from Panama to 
preach to his own people so that several men, 
one woman and over sixty of my boys and 



SOME OF MY BOYS 137 

girls have been prayed with and say that they 
have accepted Jesus Christ; that he saves and 
helps them now in their studies and all that 
they do. There has been a great change in 
their behavior. Andrew plans to go and 
preach to the mountain Indians if God opens 
the way. Meanwhile he has a great burden 
for his family. His father is under convic- 
tion and is giving up little by little and says 
he wants to be a real Christian. Andrew tells 
him that he must give up all, not his mouth 
only to speak good words but his whole heart; 
then God's Spirit will come in and bless him. 
Andrew is my right-hand boy: his life is a 
constant testimony for Jesus. Through his 
example and pleadings many of the boys have 
accepted Christ, and he is like a young shep- 
herd, watching them, praying with them and 
encouraging them. His manner of life is 
simple. He works with his father on their 
plantation, cocoanuts being their chief means 
of support, and they raise cane, corn and 
other vegetables. Their wants are few and 
easily supplied. 

One Sunday several men were getting 
sand to put around their doorstep, and An- 



138 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

drew's father went to work with them. 
While working he cut his foot, and when he 
came into the house and showed it, Andrew 
said : * Well, father, God says to remember the 
Sabbath day to keep it holy. You forgot 
God's command; this is what the Devil gives 
you for pleasing him." His father admitted 
that he was right, and he came to the gospel 
service that night and told me what Andrew 
had said to him. 

Before the priests came to the Island An- 
drew's father wanted him to be a "Camdulay" 
singer, one who sings at the chee-chee feasts, 
and he had taken some lessons and had gotten 
drunk too. But when the priests came his 
father told him he must learn to sing with 
them and to drink and smoke as they did. 
But Andrew did not fancy the priests with 
their shaven heads and long black robes and 
did not learn their ways quickly. If the 
priest had been awake to his opportunity An- 
drew might have been trained for the priest- 
hood, but he was not; God had his hand on 
the boy and was holding him for His own 
work. When I came his father was very anx- 



SOME OF MY BOYS 139 

ious to have him in my school, and in a year's 
time he gave his heart to Christ. 

Joe Harris, the third boy who accepted 
Christ at the same time, has had quite a dif- 
ferent history from the other two. He came 
to me after my school had been going about 
two months. He had lived with the priests 
and spoke Spanish well, and in a year from 
the time he came to school he could speak 
English very well. He is a bright, jolly lit- 
tle lad and every one is fond of him, and he 
is easily influenced by the company he is in. 
A young man came from Colon who had 
earned a few dollars there, and he celebrated 
by "treating" his friends. Little Joe was with 
him, and the next morning he came stagger- 
ing past the door of the school at nine o'clock, 
drunk. My heart fairly stopped beating at 
the sight and I nearly fainted away. The 
whole school received a shock. I could not 
teach any more that day. I had never had 
anything grieve me so. I closed the school 
and went to the home of Chief Robinson, with 
whom Joe lived, because he came from an- 
other island where his father was chief, and 



I40 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

was here to attend school. I found that the 
whole family had gone to one of the planta- 
tions early that morning, and that Joe refused 
to go because the young man wanted him to 
stay and dripk with him. 

Some of the men said they would send Joe 
home to his father, but the next day he came 
to school repentant enough. As I talked with 
him he cried and wanted me to pray for him. 
He prayed too and told the Lord he would 
not touch rum again. He said it was not the 
first time he had been drunk. 

He seemed very earnest after that. He 
learned seven chapters in John's Gospel and 
several Psalms, was an excellent reader and 
speller and fine in arithmetic. Long Divi- 
sion was his delight. He was full of fun: his 
laugh was contagious, and he would have kept 
the school in an uproar daily if left to himself. 
He remained with me until May, 191 5, when 
a Government ship came up to the island, and 
one of the officials, seeing how bright he was 
and how quickly he answered several ques- 
tions, took a great fancy to him and took him 
away with him. I was sorry to part with 
him, but I was not consulted either by the 



SOME OF MY BOYS 141 

ofHcial or the father and would not have 
known he was going if the boys had not run 
to say that Joe was packing up his clothes in 
the chief's house. I went down to the boat 
and gave him a New Testament in Spanish 
and English. I had promised him one when 
he finished learning the 119th Psalm. He 
had not finished it, but he was going away 
where he would speak only Spanish, and I 
felt that he must have God's Word in both 
languages. I have not seen him since, but 
the man who took him gave a fairly good re- 
port of him after eight months. I pray for 
him daily. 

Joe's father is quite an intelligent, good- 
looking man about forty years old. He was 
very eager to have a school, and now the Gov- 
ernment has built one on his island. They 
need the light of the Gospel ; but as they do 
not know their need we must carry it to them. 

Many of the other boys are very interest- 
ing; indeed all of them are, and very human 
too. Sometimes it is very hard for them to 
apply themselves to study. One boy told his 
father he was too tired to go to school, and 
he started to walk about the town; but his 



142 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

father said, *'Oh, boy, if you are too tired to 
go to school you are too tired to walk about 
the town. You had better go to bed." That 
settled it; he went to school, for what boy 
wants to go to bed in the afternoon? 

Eustace Farnum, about eleven, finds it very 
hard to concentrate on his books, but if a crab 
scratches its nose he hears it. He is very af- 
fectionate, and if he can't keep in my good 
graces by well-learned lessons he tries to smile 
his way into my heart, and he is an adept at 
that art. He does like to go fishing; but what 
human boy could resist that temptation when 
the fish are jumping up by the 'handf uls and 
fairly begging: *^Come and catch me!" I be- 
lieve Eustace can fairly hear them whisper. 
He complains of a headache sometimes, but 
it all disappears when he gets a fish-line in 
his hands. But he is not the only boy that 
has the same disease and is as suddenly cured. 

Everett Bertram is an excellent reader and 
plans to be a missionary some day. 

His father is very anxious to have him in 
school regularly, so does not give him any en- 
couragement to listen to the fish, and if he has 
aches of any kind a dose of medicine is 



SOME OF MY BOYS 143 

promptly administered and the order "To 
bed" is given. His father is also a believer 
in Solomon's remedy, and rod and moral sua- 
sion go together. Not long ago Everett 
stayed away from night school. On making 
inquiry I found that his father had gone to 
Colon: that w^as the secret. The cat was 
away, and this mouse played truant. The 
next night, however, he was the first one in, 
and at the close of the session, when we all 
pray, he asked God to forgive him for sitting 
at home the night before. He had heard bad 
words, and the ^^DeviPs spirit" gave him bad 
dreams ; he promised he would not do it again. 
I was glad to know that he understood that 
he had done wrong. I tell my boys that if 
they will only remember the first Psalm and 
ask God to help them, he will keep them from 
bad company. 

Ned Williams is the eldest child of the 
chief of another island about eight miles 
away. His father often comes to see how 
Ned is getting on. When he was in the 
Primer reading "A fat cat sat on the mat" 
his father, pointing to a shelf of books, asked 
if Ned could read all those! 



144 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

Ned's mother does not want her boy away 
from her, and in order to get him home some 
time ago she sent word that she waS sick, so 
he went home ; but as his mother began to get 
better he wanted to return to school. She 
tried to persuade him that he knew enough, 
but no, he wanted more, and refused to eat 
until his father brought him back to school. 
I think he is about eleven or twelve; but the 
boys and girls are so tiny that it is hard for 
me to guess their right ages. Of late when 
his father comes and Ned can interpret for 
me, it is wonderful! The father begs me to 
take him to New York with me when I go. 
The fathers all say that there is nothing here 
for their boys to do and they are eager to have 
them go to New York, which is the goal of 
their ambition. 

When the San Bias boys marry they go to 
their wife's home and work hard for her 
family, so the parents are willing to give their 
boys away but not the girls. Mr. Phillips 
says that he will send his only girl, Agnes, to 
an American school some day. He makes her 
American style dresses; yes, he makes them, 
for the men are great sewers. But when it 



SOME OF MY BOYS 145 

comes to the question of Agnes' going away 
it will have to be taken before the whole fam- 
ily, of which he is only one member. He, 
being in the home of his wife's mother and 
father, has not the entire control of his chil- 
dren. If his wife died and he married again, 
he would not be allowed to take one of his 
children with him to his new home — a blessed 
relief from stepmotherism! There are plenty 
of stepfathers, however, for if a man marries 
a widow with children he has to work for 
her children, but is not allowed to correct 
them. Oh, no, there is no rule of the step- 
fathers ! 

Here is Freddy Phillips, about nine years 
old. His father speaks very good English, 
for he was a sailor and visited many foreign 
ports; and he is anxious to have his children 
become good English scholars, offering to let 
them go away to school. Freddy is one of 
my pupil-teachers. He makes a fine report 
of his scholars: "Miss Coope, my boys are 
very good to-day. Clifford had one mistake 
first time reading; second time none. Ed- 
ward had no mistakes first time reading; sec- 
ond time none," etc., until all the boys are 



146 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

reported on. With a bewitching snap in his 
eyes he gives me his slate, and I read the re- 
port to the whole school. Why not? Such 
a helper as that must be encouraged. He 
says he loves Jesus too, because he has for- 
given him all his bad and made his heart 
clean. He has learned the Commandments, 
the Lord's Prayer, and eight Psalms and is 
now working on the 119th Psalm. He is 
Lonnie Powers' cousin, their mothers being 
sisters. 

Charles Robinson, the son of the chief, is 
also a bright little helper. His father would 
have sent him North with Lonnie if his 
mother had not begged so strongly not to have 
him go : he was so young, only nine years old. 
He is the only one on the island who knows 
his birthday. He likes to teach. 

It is very amusing to hear the comments of 
the class on their boy teachers : they are very 
plain spoken: "Miss Coope, the teacher is 
no good." 

"Oh, dear me, how is this?" 

"He does not open his mouth and speak 
plainly." 

Sometimes the teacher is discouraged — who 



SOME OF MY BOYS 147 

would not be with such critics? — and says: 
"Miss Coope, I won't teach any more." 

"Oh, yes, you will, because you want to help 
me; and you are going to open your mouth 
the way I do: see?" 

Then follows an exercise in mouth open- 
ing, watched by the whole school with their 
mouths opened ; then everybody is in good hu- 
mor, and I have volunteer teachers in abun- 
dance, all eager to show how they can open 
their mouths; then follows another exercise 
in keeping the mouths shut 

These are some of my boys, and you see 
they are just as human as the boys in America. 
Some people have an idea that if they could 
only go to a far-away heathen land where the 
people are so different from those at home, 
they could do great things with them. But 
let me say for the benefit of those people that 
the heathen have as much knowledge of evil 
as our educated teachers at home, for the 
fallen nature is theirs to contend with just as 
much and it comes to the top in a remarkable 
manner. The color of the skin does not hin- 
der its manifestations, and education does not 
eradicate it; only the blood of Jesus Christ 



148 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

can do that. We rejoice that we are called 
to lift up Jesus as the only Saviour from the 
power of the Devil, who is as busy out here 
as elsewhere, and we are not ignorant of his 
devices. 



CHAPTER XI 

''THE CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND" 

FOR a long time after my coming to the 
island I worked for the conversion of 
Chief Robinson without his surrendering to 
Christ. He resisted the Spirit, saying, when 
brought almost to the point of surrender, 
"Some other time," but I prayed on and be- 
lieved for him. Often when I interpreted the 
gospel invitations to believe and accept Jesus 
now, he would preach to himself, saying: "Yes, 
it is true, and it is against me, but I will believe 
soon." Then he would come to me for a talk, 
and just when he seemed almost persuaded 
some one would come and call him, and he 
would go away still undecided. Often he 
would avoid me by going to his plantation on 
Saturday and returning on Monday, so that 
for several Sundays I would not see him. 
When we talked he would try to justify him- 
self by arguing that all the old Indians be- 

149 



I50 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

lieved that if they did not murder a man they 
would go to heaven ; that he was not bad ; he 
used to be when he was a sailor, but he had 
turned over a new leaf! How like so many 
with far greater light than he who try to 
reason themselves into the belief that 
they are not sinners needing to be born 
again! 

After he had stayed away from the Sunday 
night services for three weeks, saying that he 
had to work or he was sick, or some other ex- 
cuse, I said to myself : "Yes, you are trying to 
get away from God, but He will get you yet!" 
Then he began to tell me of the trouble brew- 
ing in the midst of the people. It seems that 
they wanted a big "chee-chee." There were 
four girls of marriageable age and they had 
planned a bigger affair than ever. They 
thought that they had obeyed the chief pretty 
well for months now, and he ought to let 
them have another spree. He was in a 
quandary, and with his own heart's convic- 
tions to battle against, he was having a hard 
time. He stayed in my sitting-room for three 
hours, and we talked of God and his power 
to save, to help and to guide. He agreed that 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 151 

all I told him was right, but pleaded: "Don't 
I try my best to get my people to do right?" 

Then I turned his own argument against 
him. "Yes," I said, "you are trying, and be- 
cause they refuse to see as you do you feel bad 
about it. It is for their own good, and yet 
they positively refuse to be helped. How 
about you and God? You admit that I am 
right, that I am giving you the best I know 
of God's truth; and yet you refuse to obey 
God, who is over you, and expect your peo- 
ple to obey you! If you will surrender your 
will to God he will teach you how to lead 
others. You need God at this particular 
time, but you must surrender first, then your 
people will." 

But he was not willing. After much per- 
suasion, after he acknowledged that it was the 
right thing to do, he jumped up as though he 
had been shot and said, "Not to-night; some 
other time," and left without saying good- 
night. My heart was grieved, but I had 
faith in God; I was not discouraged; I knew 
that God was talking to him. 

This was on a Thursday night. The chief 
went away again on Saturday, returning on 



152 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

Monday, and again the week after, but had 
to return Saturday night as quickly as he 
could. He reached home at midnight and 
was in agony the rest of the night with bodily 
pain. Early Sunday morning he sent for me, 
his boy saying, ^'Oh, come quick! My fa- 
ther is very sick, vomiting blood." I went, to 
find him rolling in his hammock in great 
pain. As I went in he said : ^^Oh, Miss Coope, 
do pray for me! Do pray now!" 

"Oh, not now," I replied. "Some other 
time will do. There is no hurry; go to 
sleep." 

"But I can't sleep; God is talking to me. 
Pray for me!" 

"No, you pray for yourself now. If God 
is talking to you, you must talk to Him. IVe 
done all I can ; I can't help you now. I can't 
relieve you; only Jesus the ,Saviour can do 
that." 

"I know it! I should have given Him my 
heart long ago. He has been talking to me, 
but I didn't want to obey. I will obey now." 

"Well, then, confess your sins first. Are 
you a sinner?" 

"Yes." 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 153 
^Then tell God and ask Him to forgive you 



now." 



Between groans he prayed, and when he 
had confessed and asked God to pardon him, 
I thanked God for convicting him and asked 
Him to heal the sick man, that he might 
glorify God and lead his people to know Him 
for themselves. I then began to inquire 
about his body; that was secondary; we had to 
settle the spiritual sickness first. I had them 
get me some eggs and gave him the whites of 
eggs only that day and the next. The pain 
in his stomach ceased and he slept. I stayed 
up with him all night. His little boy of 
three was sick also, and they were going to 
chant some Indian nonsense over him, at the 
same time waving a wooden image the length 
of a man's hand, to drive away the bad spirit 
that was making the child sick. I told him 
to tell them to pray to God, and if the child 
was to get better God would heal him. He 
sent the message to them, and they did not 
go through the incantations; the boy recov- 
ered. 

Meanwhile preparations for the great 
feast were going on. The chief called a meet- 



154 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

ing and was carried downstairs into his 
brother's house, where the men gathered to 
hear him tell what God had done for him. 
This was on Sunday. On the Wednesday fol- 
lowing some of the men murmured against 
him, saying that they would have the "drunk." 
The chief sent his four policemen to gather 
up every vessel that would be used for holding 
rum. The men had gathered a great quantity 
of sugar-cane and insisted that they must have 
the feast now in order to use the cane. The 
chief's answer was : "You can eat the cane or 
use it in some other way, but you shall not 
make rum!" and they didn't! The vessels 
were all put in a pile in the house in front of 
the chief's hammock and I was called in to 
see the sight. It reminded me of what the 
Ephesians did after hearing the preaching of 
Paul: "Not a few of them that practiced 
magical arts brought their books together and 
burned them in the sight of all," Acts 19: 19. 
The chief broke the vessels, and there has not 
been a drunken feast on this island since that 
day. 

The date of Chief Robinson's conversion 
was November 14th, 19 14, and from that time 




The main street on the Island of Rio Diablo. iNative woman 

carrying her husband's canoe. Cross indicates the 

last rum shop, now closed. 



r 




A Panamanian policeman with some native boys and girls. The 
steps to the new government public school are in the background. 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 155 

he has preached in the power of the Holy 
Spirit. He did not regain his strength rap- 
idly; it was three months before he could 
work again ; and during that time he learned 
lessons of obedience. As the Mountain In- 
dians visit him he spreads the gospel to them, 
and my boys tell me that he often talks of 
Jesus to them in the store. 

During the chief's illness the leader of the 
faction who had wanted the drinking feast 
stirred up a revolt, urging the people to make 
him chief. As the office is not hereditary, 
but usually lasts until the death of the chief, 
they tried to kill Chief Robinson by giving 
him some fish that was a deadly poison. He 
discovered it before he had eaten much, but 
the little that he did take made him very sick. 
God needed him, however, and he recovered. 
The rebels went on holding meetings and 
planned and carried out a spree on another 
island, at which the leader made such a beast 
of himself that the people on that island beat 
him and he came home somewhat humbled. 

But now a new element was introduced 
into the situation. Before I Idft Colon to 
come to this island I had called twice on the 



156 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

new President of Panama. The second time 
I asked him for a letter as a passport, telling 
him why I wanted it. He replied: "Oh, you 
do not need a passport. This is a free coun- 
try and you can go where you please and start 
a school." I thanked him for that, and then 
he asked me why I wanted to go to the In- 
dians; he said they were a very treacherous 
people ; that the Government had to send sol- 
diers to Port-o-Baldia to keep order, they 
were so terrible. 

I answered: "Mr. President, I am going be- 
cause I feel that God wants me to tell them of 
Jesus who loves them. I want to teach them 
God's Book." 

"Are you not afraid?" 

"No, because Jesus has said, ^I am with you 
always.' " 

"But are you going alone?" 

"Yes, alone, yet not alone. God has said, 
'Certainly I will be with thee,' and I believe 
God." 

"Oh, surely, but I would not risk my life 
going to them. They will kill you." 

"No, they will not; I am not in the least 
afraid of that." 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 157 

"Well, you must be a brave woman, a very 
brave woman !" 

"I get it all from God. I am not naturally 
brave, but he makes me so, and I love to obey 
Him." 

"Then I wish you much success." 

Two years and three months after that con- 
versation in his house President Porras 
knocked at my door in Rio Diablo. I never 
was more surprised. Here we stood face to 
face again, this time among the "treacherous" 
Indians. He shook hands heartily, saying: 
"I am so glad to see you, Miss Coope. You 
are looking well." 

"Yes, you see the Indians have fed me in- 
stead of feeding on me," I replied. "But, 
Mr. President, are you not afraid to come 
here?" 

"Not now. Your bravery has encouraged 
me. I dare to follow you. I need not ask 
if you are well ; I see it. I have heard great 
reports of your school and I appreciate your 
good work." 

It is safe to go where the banner of Jesus 
has been raised, but it is blessed to go and lift 
it for Jesus, He leading to the spot! 



158 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

Seeing how the school had affected these 
"treacherous" Indians, how clean their dress, 
houses, and streets were, and hearing the chil- 
dren sing the national anthem and gospel 
hymns in English and Spanish, the President 
was surprised and made arrangements with 
Chief Robinson to have a school here sup- 
ported by the Government in which only 
Spanish should be taught 

Now the would-be chief and his followers 
were not in favor of my Bible school, because 
their wickedness was exposed by its teachings. 
They would not send their children nor would 
they attend the gospel services. Having had 
the light, they shrank back into the darkness. 
So when the President proposed the new 
Spanish school to Chief Robinson he of course 
had to call a meeting of his people. All were 
eager to know what President Porras had 
said, for a little of it had leaked out, and the 
rebels wanted to know how the chief would 
act now. If he had another school they were 
surely going to kill him, and if they got into 
power they were going to close my school. 
So they came to the meeting for spite, with 
murder in their hearts. 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 159 

I was called to the meeting, although I un- 
derstand very little of the Indian language; 
and there in the midst of five chiefs and their 
bodyguards and the leading men from the 
other smaller island, whose chief is led by 
Chief Robinson, with every man, friend and 
foe of our noble chief, I sat, wondering, pray- 
ing, watching the faces of the rebels, who sat 
on the back seats as backsliders always do. 

The chief stood up and told them all that 
the President had said. There was perfect 
stillness aside from an occasional grunt; then 
like a bomb in their midst he dropped this 
decision: ^'I have decided to resign as chief. 
You can appoint a new one and settle with the 
President." 

He sat down, and the assembly were dumb- 
founded. For several seconds there was not 
even a grunt! Then the second chief here, 
who was partly for the existing order of things 
and partly for the new would-be chief, rose 
and in a very determined manner declared 
that they could not let him resign. 

Such a hubbub as followed, all airing their 
own views! After much palavering, during 
which the chief sat and listened and I could 



i6o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

only pray that the right might prevail and the 
rebel party be broken up, several men stood 
up voicing their decision to this effect: they 
had unanimously voted to have Chief Robin- 
son remain in office, and all the rebellious ones 
would return under his leadership, and what- 
ever his decision was concerning even another 
school, they would abide by it! 

Then the chief talked to them. He told 
them that as they were citizens of the Re- 
public of Panama they should be obedient to 
its laws, its President, etc.; that as Indians 
they would still be Indians, only with more 
advantages (some had gotten the idea that if 
they had an education they would cease to 
be Indians), because they were hindered in 
their business transactions by having to have 
interpreters, and if they knew how to read and 
write the Spanish language they could attend 
to their own business; that the young people 
ought to have a chance. He said that he ap- 
proved of the new school, but that they could 
send their children to either school or keep 
them at home; there was no compulsion; that 
they need not mix with the foreigners, as only 
the teachers would be allowed to live on the 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND i6i 

islands. (They have a great dread of the 
white man taking their women.) He said 
that he would not allow a priest or nun to 
come as a teacher; that for his part he wanted 
the Bible taught, not creeds or prayer-books, 
images or crosses. 

After this speech there were grunts and 
grunts, and at times a man would get up and 
take the floor. It was a very well ordered 
meeting, and at the end of three hours we all 
went to our homes. The President returned 
the next day and was told the result of the 
meeting, which held for three islands, for the 
chief of Mona was there, having learned a sad 
lesson when he put me off his island. Al- 
though his own son attended my school his 
island was in ignorance. 

So now there are three Government schools 
on the three important islands, Rio Diablo 
especially being called "the New York of San 
Bias" by traders and visitors, and there has 
been progress along all lines. The chief has 
learned to bake bread, and now has a bakery 
on the spot where he once had a saloon 
and is selling daily all the bread that he can 
make, using two three-burner oil-stoves. Four 



i62 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

other men, each of whom was formerly a rum- 
seller, have ordered stoves also; and besides 
this in their stores there are Bibles, hymn- 
books, slates and pencils for sale. Praise God 
for this wonderful change! This is a sample 
of what God can do among "treacherous" In- 
dians ! 

Before closing this account of Chief Rob- 
inson I must tell how staunchly he defended 
me the first year that I worked on the island. 
Chiefs from two of the other islands were 
much against me for coming and opposed to 
Chief Robinson for letting me in. The idea 
that Indians should learn to read and write 
was preposterous! No, they should never be 
like the pale-face! After waiting impa- 
tiently nine months for me to get weary and 
go, they came over, one hundred naked red 
Indians, in their canoes, with a red flag on the 
prow. They had not notified Chief Robin- 
son that they were coming, but as the old say- 
ing is, "murder will out," and he heard about 
it, and what he said was carried back to them. 
He said that he didn't want any fights, but he 
wanted his people educated and he was going 
to have them educated, and the school teacher 



CHIEF MAN OF THE ISLAND 163 

would be protected by their lives. If Chief 
Neegah wanted to fight he had better look 
out, as he had plenty of ammunition, and if 
they came it would be the worse for them. 

After threatening a few times they did come. 
The women on our island were so afraid that 
the men came to my house and nailed up every 
door but one, intending to put the women and 
children in there. They believed in pre- 
paredness! It was reported that the enemy 
had passed in the night to gather forces from 
another island, and that in the evening there 
were two hundred coming. 

Men with rifles walked around the town 
and they fired off a cannon that the chief owns 
to warn off intruders. It sounded like war- 
times. The next day little Joe said: ^^Miss 
Coope, the mountain Indians and Neegah are 
coming to kill you." 

"Yes? Well, will you let them?" 

"No, no!" 

Then began a sham battle among my boys 
to show how they would fight to defend me, 
and Joe tumbled over four or five boys in the 
fray, at which we had a great laugh. 

At noon the enemy came. I saw twelve 



i64 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

men get into a three-by-nine foot canoe and 
paddle towards the island. Our men fired, 
the cannon boomed, and one boat-load was 
captured without a man being killed or 
wounded. Our men soon hauled down that 
red rag and dragged it on the ground. They 
took the captives to the chief, who lay in his 
hammock giving orders. He talked to the 
prisoners and let them go, and they have 
never visited us since. This battle was on 
November 5th, 1913. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOME CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 
INDIANS 

IT is always interesting to know something 
about the family life and peculiar cus- 
toms of any people, and the San Bias Indians 
have their own rules of domestic government. 
One of these is that a girl when married never 
leaves the parental roof-tree. The man has 
to come to her home and make it his as long 
as she lives. If she dies and he marries 
again, he goes to the home of the new wife, 
but the children of the first wife stay with the 
grandmother or aunts, so not many women 
here have to fill the position of stepmother 
and wait on and train the first wife's children. 
Chief Robinson, however, had ideas of his 
own and did not propose to follow the Indian 
custom. He had been among white people 
in various ports for several years, and he chose 
to follow their way in this matter. He did 

165 



i66 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

not want to be a slave to his wife's father or 
her unmarried or even her married brothers, 
for even though a son is married he is re- 
sponsible for his sister's comfort if she is 
single, and if she is married he watches his 
brother-in-law. Although he may be a slave 
to some other man, he does not show much 
mercy to his sister's husband. 

The chief did not want that kind of guard- 
ianship ; but when he planned to take his wife 
into a house built as the white man, or wah- 
gah, builds it, he had not only her family 
against him but the whole islands; he was 
breaking their custom; it had never been done 
before! His wife refused to go into the 
house, which was not yet built, and her hus- 
band, who was not yet chief, left her and for 
a month they lived apart. Finally she de- 
cided that he was a fine man, that he knew 
something, and that he had a will of his own, 
and she would accept that will for herself! 
The custom is that all that the husband owns 
is claimed by his family, so she wisely rea- 
soned that if he built a house of his own, when 
he died his family would claim it, and she, 
having left her father's home, would then 



CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 167 

have no home. She told her husband her con- 
clusion, and he straightwa}^ made a will giv- 
ing all his property to her and their children. 
So the house was built directly opposite her 
mother's home, a two-story structure with a 
cement floor. The ground floor is used for a 
store; upstairs they sleep. The wife lives 
most of the time in the kitchen of her mother's 
house, for of course they could not burn logs 
in a ^Vah-gah" house, and she must cook! so 
that relieves her. 

I once asked John Davis what his wife's 
name was, and he answered : ''John Davis same 
me." Although they do name their wives as 
it suits them, they generally address them as 
Homey, while the husband is Suey, 

The San Bias marriage I have never seen, 
but I have heard it! They marry at night, 
and never on a moonlight night when I could 
see. The chief told me that the father of the 
girl makes the arrangement. He asks the fa- 
ther of the man for his son. Sometimes the 
son refuses at once; but if he is willing, or if 
his father chooses to have him married, the 
ceremony goes on. The girl is put into a 
hammock; then several young married men 



i68 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

go to the house of the bridegroom-to-be and 
carry him bodily to the girl's house. If he 
does not know beforehand what is coming he 
knows now, for as they carry him they yell, 
"Suey! Suey! Suey!" Then they put him 
into the hammock, and if he does not want to 
be married he jumps out and runs away. The 
young men run after him and bring him back, 
and again he runs away, sometimes into the 
sea. The third time they bring him back, 
and if he wants to be married he stays and his 
friends go home and leave him. He is now 
married. If he really does not want to marry 
he jumps out of the hammock once more and 
goes home, and they do not run after him; 
they leave him until another moon, hoping 
that he will change his mind. Sometimes he 
does, and marries that girl, sometimes he does 
not. But marry he must, and if he won't be 
married when sober they will get him drunk 
so that he can't run or resist; and when he 
sobers up, often he is vexed and leaves the 
girl and the island, taking a wife of his own 
choice, arranging the matter with the girl's 
father; as she is not to be spoken to by her 
sweetheart. 



CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 169 

The girl at her wedding gets no presents, 
no feast, no new clothes ; these are given to her 
when she is "chee-cheed," which is only a 
short time before she is given in marriage. 

Some of my girls are refusing to be married 
so young; they say they want to come to school 
and learn something; and the chief is persuad- 
ing the parents to let their girls develop more. 
The girls are only like little children when 
they become mothers, which has much to do 
with their dwarfed stature; few are taller 
than I, and I feel very big towering over 
some of the women, who stand under my arm. 
They are very strong, however ; the men guard 
them and seem to think a great deal of them; 
they do not work in the fields. The women 
go in canoes to wash their clothes in the river, 
and they bring the drinking water in cala- 
bashes and gourds. The men make their own 
shirts and trousers and teach the boys to do 
so ; the women do not sew for the men. 

These people are peaceful and quiet, go- 
ing to bed early and rising early and working 
their plantations. Cocoanuts are the chief 
product, and the traders do a big business 
bringing rice, sugar, soap, tobacco, cloth and 



I70 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

much rum to exchange for them. The rum 
importation has been stopped of late, how- 
ever, so that when an Indian wants it he has 
to go to Colon in his canoe and get a demijohn. 
The people's needs are few — cloth for the 
shirts and trousers of the men, beads and cloth 
for the women, and a little extra when the 
baby girl comes, not for clothing but for a 
gold ring for her nose. The custom is to 
pierce the nose and ears of the girls on the 
third day. Since Andrew Ferguson gave his 
heart to Jesus he says he has persuaded his 
father and stepmother not to have the baby's 
nose pierced. The chief's wife has had two 
daughters since I came here, and neither one 
has had its nose pierced, so that now several 
of the baby girls have escaped that horrible 
custom, which even the men approve, saying 
it "looks pretty"! I told the chief he ought 
to bore these men's noses! 

I have the pleasure of naming the babies. 
I keep a record of births, and give the mother 
a paper; she is pleased to have the "letter," as 
she calls it, and when I visit a home I am 
often asked how old the baby is and what its 
name is. They have a custom of naming a 



CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 171 

baby according to what they see or what the 
child does. If he eats plenty of rice he is 
called Abahdoomah, Big- rice-eater; if he is 
fair-skinned he is Me-me-see-puha, White 
Baby; or if he is tiny he is called Pee-pee- 
wah. Generally to boys they say Machee, 
which is an abbreviation of Machee-malo, the 
word signifying boy. To girls they say Puna, 
which means girl; often to babies just Mee- 
mee, which is baby, until he or she is named, 
after our style of nicknames. 

The San Bias Indians have a peculiar cus- 
tom of "making a friend." This is done in 
childhood days by both sexes. A boy will ask 
another boy: "Will you be my friend?" If 
the one asked says that he will, then the first 
boy gives him a piece of cloth, enough to make 
a shirt; then he boils an egg and cuts it in two 
and they sit down and eat it together. Ever 
after that they are friends. The next day or 
week perhaps the second boy returns the com- 
pliment by giving to the other a shirt and 
boiling an egg; the girls do the same. I was 
puzzled when I first came here and would 
ask a boy regarding a companion whom I had 
seen him walking around with, "How is your 



172 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

friend?" to have him answer, ^'He is not my 
friend; John or Ned is my friend," and yet 
he would not be with John or Ned. So they 
explained their method of making a "friend," 
saying that the companion whom they are with 
is not necessarily their friend; they may not 
associate with their "friend" very much, but 
still he is their "friend." 

The girls of San Bias are interesting as well 
as the boys and I have had numbers of them 
in my school. Some of them I call my New 
Testament girls, and they are earnest Chris- 
tians. Owing to their early marriages — for 
there are no old maids or bachelor girls among 
the San Bias — many of my pupils are mothers, 
but that does not especially interfere with 
their school life, for the baby can be left at 
home with the grandmother while the mother 
comes to learn to read and write. 

The photographs which are reproduced in 
this book show how the girls and women dress. 
The skirts are not sewed ; they are just a piece 
of cloth put around the body and tucked in 
at the waist. The yoke and sleeves of the 
waist are of many colored strips, and over 
the yoke is the bodice, which is very elaborate. 



CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS* 173 

It is made of several pieces of bright-colored 
calicoes put one on top of the other, and each 
layer cut in figures or designs, letting the 
next piece under show through. Often there 
are six layers of cloth sewed on in this way. 
They do not use a thimble in sewing, and they 
push the needle from them. These tattooed 
bodices are often quite artistic and are much 
better than the African custom of tattooing 
the body. 

But the crowning feature of the costume 
are the heavy strings of beads of all colors 
on the neck, arms and legs and the nose-rings. 
A girl does not wear finger-rings until she is 
married, and then she has two on every finger 
and often three and four. The beads are not 
strung for a certain distance, so that only the 
strings lie against the neck in the back, and 
the beads, sometimes a hundred strings in one 
necklace, hang in heavy masses in front. In 
the photographs many of the beads appear 
white, but they are not; the women are too 
fond of bright blues and reds and yellows to 
wear white. The beads for the legs are 
strung on pieces of wood about the size of the 
ankle but bound on so tightly that they stop 



174 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

the circulation and the flesh is in ridges. 
Sometimes the girls tell me that they cannot 
sleep because of the pain from that tight bind- 
ing; but Dame Fashion is as tyrannical in San 
Bias as in other parts of the world, and suf- 
fering is endured if the wearer is conscious 
of being in style. However many of the girls 
and women are not now binding their ankles 
and arms and a few have taken off the nose- 
rings. 

These Indians are sailors born. When the 
traders come they depend on the Indians to 
pilot their vessels. They have eyes like a 
hawk, and often start to Colon at midnight, 
moon or no moon; a good wind is all that 
they wait for. If they have a good wind they 
will be in Colon the next night by sunset, but 
often a squall comes, upsetting their small 
canoes. They lose much, but they say: "An 
Indian can't drown; we never heard of an 
Indian drowning." Their cargo is usually 
cocoanuts, sometimes alligator pears and 
mangoes. They buy to bring back cloth, 
sugar, rice, and beads for mother, wife or 
daughters ; they would not be Indians without 



CUSTOMS OF THE SAN BLAS 175 

beads, though the men do not decorate at all; 
that is reserved for the women. 

We had a new thing last Christmas. I told 
the boys to bring a flagpole and place it in 
front of the schoolhouse. They did this and 
then put one in front of every home in town. 
Why not? Then every man, woman and 
child made a raid on my Standard Diction- 
ary to get patterns of the flags of all nations, 
and to save my book I had to cut out the three 
leaves of lithographed flags, and the making 
of flags was entered into with enthusiasm. 
There are now 105 flags on three streamers 
from the schoolhouse pole and countless 
others in town. No photographer could re- 
sist taking a snapshot of us in our beflagged 
condition. I have never used a camera my- 
self and have to depend on tourists for the pic- 
tures that we have. 



CHAPTER XIII 
god's leadings 

MANY have asked me how I came to 
work among these Indians, and in an- 
swer to that I can only point to God's lead- 
ings. I have given each link in the chain, 
each one seemingly small and unimportant 
yet absolutely necessary to bring about the 
thing that God had planned. He sent me 
into a home where I was not wanted, where 
I was not spoiled by doting parents; by a 
facial disfigurement he saved me from van- 
ity; he chose me from among the beautiful 
and attractive and wise of my native land and 
of America, my adopted land, touched my 
heart, and I responded, obeyed and went. 
That is the story in a nutshell. The results: 
Honor for me and salvation from God for the 
Indians. As I look out of my door as I 
write these lines and see twenty-five of our 
Christian boys and forty of our girls working 

176 



GOD'S LEADINGS 177 

in the burning sun, as they have done for two 
days, to fill in the large holes washed out by 
the sea at the foundation of my house, and 
know that before they began the work they 
met at the school at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing to pray that God would help them to 
make the foundation and the wall good and 
strong and that none would quarrel and fight 
— because, you see, they are human, and some 
of the girls are not yet Christians — I can only 
praise God for these trophies of His grace. 
He has the power to save and civilize ^'treach- 
erous" Indians a hundred miles from the won- 
derful ''Big Ditch" that slides and stops 
traffic; and He is building canals through 
which His grace is flowing unhindered, to the 
glory of His great name and the joy of angels. 
If any who read these lines would really 
like to know God's will for them, I can only 
say, Ask God. He will show you better than 
any human being can. He will make diflS- 
cult things stepping-stones and enable you to 
do His will as he makes it known. See God in 
everything and make everything work for His 
glory. Do not think that God will send you 
off to China or Japan or India at your first 



178 ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

impulse to go. The impulse is good, and may 
be one of the links necessary. But seek His 
will, and He will let you know in His own way 
what is best. Stay at home until He says: 
"Go," and use the mop or the spade, the pen 
or the typewriter, for His glory. When your 
faith grows strong through every-day experi- 
ences He will promote you. Dish-washing is 
a necessary part of a missionary's training, for 
I have to do it between teaching and preach- 
ing and leading precious souls to Christ. And 
I scour my pans and clean just common barn 
lanterns to light my school, and wash, iron 
and press clothes — all common things that I 
learned to do long ago. I bake bread and 
have taught an Indian chief how to bake it 
and fitted up the stove, for a knowledge of 
tools is pretty likely to be required on a mis- 
sion field. 

Do you sing over your home work? Do 
you pray over the common, everyday things 
of life? Are you obedient to those over you, 
whoever they may be? Jesus learned obedi- 
ence "by the things which He suffered." Do 
not use human arguments or reasonings when 
you come to God. Talk to Him, let Him talk 



GOD'S LEADINGS 179 

to you, then obey, and you will be surprised 
at the results. 

I am surprised that God chose me to come 
to this people so near to the spot where big 
men were digging a big canal, the wonder of 
the world. Big minds turned that way, and 
one would have thought that big Boards that 
do big things would have seen an opening to 
get the gospel to these Indians. But the open- 
ing was so small that they didn't see it, and 
God let me in through the opening because I 
believed. ^^Blessed is she that believed; for 
there shall be a fulfilment of the things which 
have been spoken to her from the Lord." 
Luke 1 : 45. 

If some one, after reading this simple ac- 
count of what God has wrought, would step 
out by faith on the promises and do something, 
go somewhere, write, pray, sing for God, let 
it be over the garden wall, in the kitchen, 
across the street, in the field or factory, in 
Sunday-school, mission hall or slums, God 
will be honored, the doer will be blessed, and 
souls will be saved. 

In closing let me say that I have never been 
lonely, sad or blue. I have so much to do 



i8o ANNA COOPE, SKY PILOT 

that time seems to fly. Some ask me how I 
have time to write letters. I take time. I 
have no spare moments; I have busy moments, 
each one a gem. While the water is boiling 
for my cocoa perhaps I have two minutes, and 
I take a piece of paper and write to this one 
or that. I am kept by the power of God from 
the assaults of the enemy and often from His 
suggestions. I have learned to rest by change 
of occupation. 

The same God who enabled Daniel to pur- 
pose in his heart to keep clean in morals and 
in food is here in San Bias to keep me. The 
same God who preserved David Livingstone, 
who was over a year without letters or papers, 
can and does keep me company. Oh, my 
mouth is enlarged like Paul's when I begin 
to speak of God's leadings. His presence. His 
love and power! My soul is full of joy be- 
cause Jesus, the Son of God, is my Saviour, 
Sanctifier, Healer, and soon-coming King. 
The saved ones here are looking for His return 
with joy. Pray for them and for me, for I 
am looking ahead for more land to be pos- 
sessed by the saints of San Bias. We are 
marching on by faith. 



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